Maple sugaring

[cordex]

I sterilize the jars and lids in boiling water, and after I put the hot syrup in I turn them upside down for a while. That was the process recommended to me, but I’m not an expert and it is possible it is wrong in some respect.

[cordex]

With the rising temperatures, I was worried the run might be nearly over. It wasn’t today, anyway. I had at least 15 gallons of sap in the barrel from today, and combined with the condensed sap from yesterday ended up with 10 gallons of concentrate.

Another couple days like this and I’ll have a real good boil.

[cordex]

I'm up to 20 gallons of concentrate, which is all I can store in the upright fridge and freezer in my garage.  I think at this point I'm just going to freeze buckets (hoping they don't break) and swap them out.  Hopefully it will be cool enough that they will take their time thawing.  Going to be a heck of a boil this weekend.

[cordex]

Almost through with the first boil on this batch. 23 gallons of concentrated sap, so at least twice that in raw sap before the reverse osmosis.

My neighbor called on his way back from the shop and let me know he had some left over bread and milk that he needed to get rid of, so I got three loaves of really good homemade bread. The cheddar jalapeño wasn’t as spicy as it could have been, but still very good.

Might try making cheese with some of the milk.

[sumpnz]

What sugar content do you get from the RO? Do you do multiple passes?

[cordex]

What sugar content do you get from the RO? Do you do multiple passes?

I put the permeate line in a bucket and the concentrate line back into the barrel that has the sap, then let it run. So multiple passes but continuously instead of as a batch. 

Concentration depends on how long I leave it, but usually at about 5% the permeate slows to a trickle and then I move the concentrate line into a clean bucket.

[cordex]

Did the finish boil tonight. Ended up with almost a gallon.

[cordex]

Last night my oldest daughter helped me boil down another batch. We got a late start but I had been voluntold help with some work today, so we made due.

We got another half gallon out of this batch. It sounds like a lot, but we have been giving it away like crazy, so it isn’t piling up the way I’d like.

Weather looks to be pretty warm this week. I’m guessing sap season is going to be done soon.

I learned a lot this year that will hopefully make next year even more productive.