Maple Syrup Production
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Sunset over the Sap Buckets
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Sap House Already Dead
Sadly that didn’t take long. What was going to be slightly windy, so I battened everything down, went to down right blustery. I think I even saw Mary Poppins go flying by… It’s a goner. Right now I’m sitting half in my driveway and half in my garage trying to finish a batch of syrup. Getting late and my motivation is waining. Maybe spark it up and finish it tomorrow morning. Not exactly sure what this means for the rest of the season but I really need to make a permanent structure.
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Ghetto Sugar Shack 4.0
She’s a complete store tent setup complete with walls and a window! It’s really not a bad setup. The ceiling is high and overall well put together for something this cheap. The frame construction is well built, but the plastic walls are thin and not meant for any strong weather, so we will see how it actually holds up. I assumed there would be a roof vent as most of these do for wind, but this one lacks that and the steam can hang low. Not that big of a deal and maybe something I can add if I keep this. I bet there is a well built canvas one…
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Trees are Tapped!
The 2022 Maple Syrup Season as begun! You can follow along with my Yearly Production Page and log. Been keeping that page going since 2018. With snow still on the ground, the days are getting into the high 30’s and the nights below freezing. We will have a good cold snap coming this weekend and I was going to hold off until after the cold snap (below 20 for a few days, even during the day) but decided to throw caution to the wind and collect some sap. Good choice! As soon as I tapped the trees, the sap was flowing. Going to be a great collection the next day…
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Maple Syrup Season 2022 is Here!
Usually I will tap on Valentines day. The season always starts around then and it is a good weekend to make sure you get your taps into the trees. Looking at the weather forecast, I’m going to tap this coming weekend just to be same. While Sunday starts us off around -5 in the morning, it will warm up and start off what looks to be a perfect week for running sap. Warm days and freezing nights. Depending on the actual day time temperature and how long it gets there, the trees may not run at all, the sun really needs to thaw out the tree first, but just in…
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Ordering Supplies for Maple Season 2022
Honestly, I’m not really feeling it this year. I need to order some filter cones and paper for finishing the syrup. Just checked my supplies and I’m low on the pre-filter paper, and completely out on the main filter cloth. My pop-up tent was destroyed last year in a storm, so need a new one of those for ghetto sugar shack 4.0 I believe it will be numbered this year. I’m good on barrels I believe. Have one for finishing and one for sap, just need to double check if I should order a new one. Have the burner ready and the tap into my house for unlimited propane supply.…
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Using the CDL Reverse Osmosis
This is just a quick run down and video on how to use the CDL Reverse Osmosis and how I used it as a hobbyist. Since I don’t filter my sap when I pour it into my containers (speeds up the process, especially if you have bits of frozen sap), I added an extra filter bag to my intake line. What I then do is add that line to my sap container and put my concentrate line back into the same sap container. This will allow me the time to build it up to the % concentrate that I wish for my sap to be – I aim for a…
