Off Topic; It is 'spring' again?

[WHIG 0]

God Speed and safe journey for your brother. What a loving family it sounds like you have!

[ArtR 0]

My brother's wish was to be cremated in 'the arch', but since that is not allowed, it was done in the normal way. Yesterday, however, we got the call that the ashes were ready to be picked up, so my nephew and I went to get them. As we were going to boil, we only thought it appropriate that 'my brother' sit in a corner and watch over the  boil. We, and others that visited, also felt that it was an appropriate tribute to him.

We previously  had 3 days of very cold, freezing weather, and that sort of did the trick, and when it warmed,  the sap from the trees had sweetened some, and the syrup flavor and aromas improved drastically, back to normal, and the amount of niter was also drastically reduced..

We thanked my brother for his kind help. And, as we boiled, we reminisced about him and the good times we had with him both in and out of the sugarhouse.

BTW, we made 95 gallons the day before, and another 55 gallons yesterday, taking us to 1656 gallons for the year.

[ArtR 0]

More sugaring info: Today, while cold and windy, we do have some sap at the 'quarry' sugarbush, which we needed to collect. I drove over with the 2017 Ford F550 dump with a RotoMold 1000 gal collection tank. This truck currently only has 9993 miles!  At the quarry, formerly owned by Rock of Ages, of Barre, VT, we have two 20FT shipping containers. Each houses a 5'x5'x12' stainless steel 2000 gallon tank. Both tanks are connected by 2" piping to allow us to collect and hold 4000 gallons sap. When at the quarry, a 2" dia hose is connected to the truck tank, and an electric pump pumps sap at better than 110 gallons per minute into the truck tank. It takes about 9 minutes to fill the truck.

Photo of the sap station control box. Here the sap flows in, via numerous main lines (black tubing on left of photo) from the woods, into a 10 gallon release tank  ( seen as dim blue in photo), from which it is pumped into the 2 storage tanks. When we have at least 1000 gallons, we begin to collect, but we like to have a minimum of 3000 gallons to justify a boil. Once 3000 gallons of sap has been run through the RO to an 11% sugar content, it only takes about 2 hours to boil that down to 50 some odd gallons of  syrup, so any less is hardly worth the time or energy (wood).

Two photos of one tank nearly full. Sap is quite clear and has a blue-green tint.

Photos taken roughly 1 minute apart to show how quickly the truck tank fills. Image 0010a the tank is at roughly 500 gallons, or about even with the dump body side rails. When loaded, the tank holds about 8000 lbs or 4 tons sap. Sap weighs just slightly more than water. As of these photos, this season we have hauled 89 full and partial loads for 87550 gallons sap.

[ArtR 0]

We processed and boiled 6000 gallons sap on 3/31 and made 115 gallons syrup, bringing our year total to 1771. Again, we are noticing cloudiness in the sap, different flavor and odor,  and we are getting heavier niter deposits in the pans. We are also finding the filter press is building pressure earlier, and we need to change filter papers sooner. We are humbly beginning to accept that the season is nearing an end. As there is an impending snow storm coming, I may travel home either today or tomorrow, and hope that the backup crew will respond as needed.

[ArtR 0]

Hi guys.

Camstuff reminded me that I need to do an update.

Since I last reported, on 3/31, we have boiled 5 more times, (4/1,4/2,4/3,4/7,4.8) making another 55+60+45+83.5+45 gallons, from another 18,400 gallons of sap. This brings our year total to 2060 gallons of syrup, breaking our year 2016 record of 2025 gallons. 

There are 4 grades (colors/flavors) of maple syrup. All of ours fell in the middle two grades of Amber color/Rich flavor  and Dark color/Robust flavor, with the majority Amber/Rich.  Golden color/Delicate flavor is the top grade. In that case, when tested 76-100% of light will pass through the test sample.  Amber/Rich, 51-75% of light will pass through a sample. Dark/Robust, 26-50% of light will pass through a sample. And Very Dark color/Strong flavor, only 0-25% of light will pass through a sample. There are two other tests that syrup must pass, including clarity (cloudiness/turbidity/sediment) , and aroma. When flavor exceeds a norm, we generally will downgrade the syrup to the next lower grade.

I have two photos to share this time.

Each day that we boil, we put a 'sample jar' in the window. I have not taken a current photo, but currently there are 23 jars in the window. While it is hard to imagine,  all those  jars graded in color as Amber color, but one was downgraded to Dark/Robust as the flavor was much stronger. That held true for  of the last 7 boils/samples not seen in this photo.

 

Also, after we fill a barrel with syrup, we must store it someplace, until it is sold and collected by a packing house. In this photo, there are 44 of  48 barrels made to date. Just imagine 4 more barrels in that room. Each barrel has a tare weight of 48 lbs. And maple syrup weighs roughly 11 lbs per gallon. So a full barrel will average 488 lbs.

As of this morning, my nephew and I were discussing how to proceed. He has approximately 2000+ gallons of sap that extremely slowly flowed over the past 3 days. Also, the temps have been extremely warm (above 60F) and this same sap has sat collected at these above normal temperatures. In the air there are natural yeasts, and when they are in contact with warm moist sugars, they will grow and multiply.  While my nephew has not visited the sap station today, he is expecting to smell yeasty or bread dough like aromas. That will spell the end of our season.

 

[ArtR 0]

So, a final note (?) to the 2024 Maple Syrup season. On April 12th, my nephew, and skeleton crew, hauled another 3000 gallons of barely 1% questionable sap and processed it through the RO. He boiled in the late afternoon, using that sap in an effort to push the last remaining good syrup from the evaporator pans. He re-opened the 48th barrel and completed filling it with 35 gallons of 'syrup', which he is sure will be purchased by the packing house. It was definitely commercial grade.

However, that put his official total for the year at 2095 gallons, a record  production year for him. Some other records: 113950 gallons of sap hauled by 116 truck loads/trips. This season of 62 days (first to last boil) tied with the 2018 year. Also, the 24 boil days tied years 2011, 2016, and 2020. This yield also was nearly .55 gal syrup from each tap, a record for him.

He then let the fire go out, and left the evaporator full with the remaining sap. Now some magic begins. This sap will sit for a several weeks, and in that process, the natural sugars and yeasts will ferment, creating natural acids to help clean the pans naturally, instead of using harsh commercial acids. When the fermenting is done, he will drain the evaporator and power wash the interior, and then he will prepare for next years season. This years spouts need to be pulled, all 3813 of them. Over the course of the summer, there is wood to be cut, split, stacked, and dried. Over the next several months, he will have to revisit the woods frequently to remove any branches, limbs, trees, downed either by weather or age, from the lines and make repairs if he finds them.

Until next season....some cleaning photos from the 2021 season

 

[matconcrete 0]

Coming from one who has spent 6 decades growing up in the middle of maple country (Maine), I found this informative and quite amazing as to the level that you and your family have brought this to.

[camstuff 0]

This is definitely fascinating to me.  Lots of knowledge to hopefully pass down to the younger generation Art. 

[ArtR 0]

Hi guys.

One other note. For those familiar with  heating with 'fire wood', and the work involved, we burned just slightly over 10 cords of "hard wood" during those 62 days, (I.E., no soft wood), to make the nearly 2100 gallons.

[matconcrete 0]

I would call that highly efficient!