Maple Sugaring Apprentice - Week Three

This week was very eventful. It started with the first sap collection of the year. Ben taught me how to pump the sap from the large collecting tanks into the back of the truck. We then unloaded the sap into a large silver tank next to the sugar house. In the first collection, I made a huge mistake, where I turned the valve on the tank the wrong way, and we lost 250 gallons of sap. So I definitely learned from that one, and won’t make that mistake again. Because we lost that much sap, we were not able to boil until Thursday.  However, there was plenty more sap to collect and the first boil was very exciting. I learned most of what is to be learned about the evaporation process.             

I got the chance to tend the fire.  It needs feeding every 8 minutes to make sure that the fire stays at a consistent hot temperature. I learned about how we know when it is time to draw off, and how to use the hydrometer to test density. We drew off periodically and finished the syrup in a propane fueled finishing pan before bottling the syrup into mason jars. We have a main boiling pan, and a smaller pan.  The smaller pan is for the sap that is closer to syrup and ready to be drawn off. The current of the pans flow in such a way that where the sap enters the system is where the sugar content is lowest. The liquid flows across pan where it changes density as the sugar content is concentrated through evaporation.

This week we collected roughly 1,100 gallons of sap, including what was lost in the accident.  From that have so far made about 11 gallons of syrup. However there is still sap in the evaporator that remains to boiled in subsequent days.