MapleAcres

Into the woods by 5:30 AM to cook. It was cold overnight: low to mid-20s. Forgot to drain the line from the storage tank to the R/O. It had slushy ice. The R/O feed pump would run, but the high pressure pump wouldn’t start until that ice was removed because there wasn’t enough sap flow to sustain the pump. It was 7:15 AM before the R/O was going.

The R/O was not preforming. The pH wash didn’t restore performance. We limped along until 11:00 AM then swapped from the FilmTec membrane to the CDL membrane. The spare membrane didn’t preform much better. Both the concentrate and permeate were under .5 gal/min. Likely closer to 0.2 gal/min. The gauge doesn’t have graduations for anything less than .5 gal/min.

We checked the permeate: no sugar in it. Approximately 3.5 Brix on the concentrate. If the flow was higher we could even tolerate the lower Brix. The R/O is rated at 125 gal/hr. Real world is 90 to 100 gal/hr. We were getting 25-30 gal/hr.

Gave up on the R/O by 1:00 PM to concentrate on cooking old style. Dividing attention between the R/O and firing diminishes effectiveness of both. This became a 14 ½ hour day. If the R/O performed to specifications, it should have been a six to seven hour day.

After three batches into the milk can, we returned to amber color as the sap from the warm days was cooked off.

Sunny and mid-30s by afternoon. Some tress dripped, but we have to abandon that sap. Didn’t have the resources to collect and with the forecast snowstorm, couldn’t cook it.

Since replacing the Grundfos feed pump with the Goulds feed pump three seasons ago, we’ve had performance problems with R/O. We suspect the Goulds pump is over-sized for a single 4” membrane and pushes more sap through then the re-circulation pump can handle. We’ll have down time this week because of the snowstorm and then cold weather with single digits at night, and plan to investigate how these pump specifications differ.

The day cooking.
7:15 AM R/O start
8:00 AM 2 3/4″
8:20 AM batch
9:00 AM 4 1/4″
10:00 AM 4 ¼”
10:15 AM batch
11:00 AM 4″
11:00 AM switch to CDL membrane
11:35 AM resume R/O
12:00 PM 4″
12:55 PM batch
1:05 PM stopped R/O
2:00 PM 3 3/4″
3:00 PM 1 1/4″
3:10 PM batch, amber color returned
4:00 PM 8″ raw sap
5:00 PM 6 ½”
5:35 PM batch
6:00 PM 4 1/2″
7:00 PM 2 1/2″
7:30 PM 2″
7:45 Pm done

Back to the farmhouse by 8:00 PM.

Blizzard warning in effect for tomorrow through Monday. 8”-18” forecast with winds 40-50 mph. We are on the trailing edge of the storm. 18”-24” expected 50 miles to the North in the center of the storm track.

Into the woods by Noon. Started collecting at 12:45 PM. 325 gallons. Solo. Pumping out the full tank delays us by 50 minutes because the transfer pump is slow. We work ahead emptying buckets and leaving the full collecting pails by the road to dump when we drive by.

Trees dripped overnight as we anticipated. But the run is done now. Don’t expect more sap until next week after the snow storm has passed.

Forecast still shows between 8”-18” of snow. Final amount depends on the storm track.

Back to the farmhouse by 5:00 PM.

Into the woods by 9:00 AM to check if the pH wash cycle finished. It did finish. Then swept the floors and other tidying up in the building.

Back to the woods by 10:45 AM to empty the buckets. About a pint in most buckets, but it was ice and we had to wait for it to melt before emptying. That sap was in the buckets for several warmer days so didn’t want to keep it. We are ready for fresh new sap.

Upper 20s overnight. Sunny and 40 during the day. Trees started dripping by Noon. Likely drip all night because temperature forecast for the mid-30s overnight. Hoping to collect tomorrow.

Ran the rinse cycle on the R/O this afternoon. The R/O needs a longer rinse cycle after a pH wash. Also washed the finishing pan so it’s ready.

Light snow forecast for tonight. No accumulation expected. But Saturday night through Monday heavy snow/blizzard is possible. 12”-18”. It’s still several days away. We’ve seen these storm forecasts before only to fizzle out with an inch or two. Monitoring the forecast.

Back to the farmhouse by 3:00 PM.

Mid-30s overnight. Cloudy with light rain turning to light snow by 11:00 AM.

Into the woods by 11:00 AM to prepare the pH wash. But the yesterday’s wash cycle was still running. Only reached 110 in almost 20 hours. Not sure why. The spare membrane was from a different manufacturer that has different specifications.

We let the R/O cool for three hours before rinsing. Didn’t want to shock the sensors with cold water while the R/O was 110. Waited for it to cool to the 50s.

Swapped back the FilmTec membrane then prepared the pH wash. We got a digital pH meter to better dose the wash water. We want 11-12 pH with closer to 12 pH better. Settled at 11.6 pH. We hope the pH wash restores membrane performance. Better sap will help too.

Back and forth from the farmhouse to the woods several times rinsing, swapping and preparing the pH wash cycle. Done for the day by 4:00 PM.

This is why we have a spare membrane. After 35 minutes, the R/O stopped because it reached the maximum of 500 PSI. A safety switch engages at 500 PSI to stop the R/O. We weren’t surprised because we noticed the pressure increasing during the short time the R/O was running and anticipated it would reach maximum pressure. The membrane was fouling. The warm weather degraded yesterday’s sap, although it didn’t look or smell off. We retrieved the spare membrane from the farmhouse and swapped it into the R/O. This membrane handled the sap. It’s specifically designed for R/Os used with maple syrup. Running the wash cycle on the R/O now with the spare membrane. We’ll swap membranes tomorrow again and run a pH wash on the fouling membrane.

Into the woods by 5:30 AM. Upper 30s overnight. Windy, cloudy and low 40s during the day.

The day cooking.
6:15 Am R/O start
6:50 AM change to spare membrane
8:00 AM restart R/O
8:45 AM batch
9:00 AM 2 ¼”
10:10 AM batch
10:15 AM 3 ½”
11:00 AM 4”
11:50 AM batch
11:50 AM R/O done
12:00 PM 4 ¾”
1:00 PM 2 ¼”
1:15 PM batch
1:30 PM ½”
1:30 PM done

Syrup color changed from light amber to dark amber. The color change also caused by the warm weather effecting the sap.

Back to the farmhouse by 1:45 PM.

Upper 40s overnight. Sunny and mid-60s during the day. Into the woods by 10:00 AM for rinse cycle on the R/O. Checked a few buckets. Some 2/3 or more. We collected two days ago: Friday. Saturday was wet, cloudy and warm. Sunday was warm too. Not sap weather. But the trees will run when they are ready.

Collected at 2:15 PM. Solo. 260 gallons. Back to the farmhouse by 6:15 PM.

Cook tomorrow. Temperature returns to more normal ranges. Some snow also forecast.

Above freezing overnight. Partly cloudy and mid 50s today. Could be warmer tomorrow. Tuesday or Wednesday we return to seasonal temperatures with freezing nights.

Ran another wash cycle on the R/O.

Into the woods by 6:00 AM to cook. Thunderstorm overnight means more snow based on folklore. Cloudy with rain and drizzle all day. Temperature 54 at 7:00 AM. Dropped to the mid 40s by afternoon.

No problems with the R/O. Tried to maintain 7 Brix. We didn’t get sustained boils until we mixed maple and other hardwood with the pine and cedar. Softwood burns too quickly.

The day cooking.
6:35 R/O start
7:00 2”
8:00 4”
8:15 batch
9:00 6”
9:40 batch
10:00 6 ½”
11:00 batch
11:00 8 ½”
11:10 R/O done
12:00 6 ½”
12:35 batch
1:00 4”
2:00 1 ¾”
2:25 batch
2:35 done

Back to the farmhouse by 2:45 PM. Temperatures in the high 40s low 50s the next three days. Not sap weather.

Into the woods by 10:00 AM to run the rinse cycle on the R/O and check if the re-circulation pump starts. It did! Yeah! We’ll still monitor the pump.

We planned to collect today. Sap ran into the night on Wednesday, two days ago. Also ran yesterday. By collecting today, we got the full run. The next 4-5 days are warm again. 50s. Even a 60 in there. Nights in the 40s. There won’t be much sap, but we’ll likely dump any that does come because it won’t keep in the warm weather.

Today was cloudy and rainy. Temperature in the 40s. We wanted to avoid the rain when collecting but it was there was a steady rain at 12:30 PM when we started. Or tried to start. The wagon had a broken carriage bolt on the front axle causing the front wheels to go in opposite directions.

Got a replacement carriage bolt at the hardware store. Fortunately, we weren’t deep in the woods with a tank full of sap. That would cause a challenge because we had to move the tank to access the carriage bolt. A full of sap would be too heavy to move. By the time we finished this repair, the rain stopped. Starting collecting by 1:45 PM. Collected 310 gallons.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:15 PM.

Into the woods by 5:30 AM. Sap in the evaporate was ice. Had to fire slowly until 7:00 AM to melt the ice while not burning the pan. Prepared the R/O during this time so it was ready. Started the R/O shortly after 7:00 AM. The re-circulation pump did not start again. That was discouraging because the R/O makes an easier day cooking.

Expected the same problem as yesterday: the armature in the re-circulation pump was stuck again. Disconnected hoses. Laid the R/O down for access to the pump motor. All for naught because the armature moved freely. Reconnected everything and tried again. Now it worked. We may have been inpatient waiting for the pump to spin up. Took over an hour. We’ll monitor this pump until we feel comfortable it’s dependable. It started and stopped several times today as we changed moods form concentrating to rinsing to washing. The concern is a latent problems that reoccurs when the pump sits for longer time frames.

It was 8:10 AM before we got the R/O going. Between the ice in the evaporator and the R/O we lost 2 ½ hours of cooking. The remainder of the day was okay. We kept more sap in the pans, so it was longer between batches. Four batches into the milk can.

Ran the R/O at 7.5 Brix. At one point the R/O was producing 8.5 Brix. We adjusted the settings to reduce the Brix. The new membrane makes a difference and the incoming sap was 3.5 Brix.

About 30 overnight. Cloudy and upper 30s/low 40s during the day. Won’t freeze tonight.

Back to the farmhouse by 4:00 PM.