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just finished my last batch, so far I'm just shy of the 5 gallons I wanted. Looks like it's over. I'm going to wait a few more days before I give up, supposed to get cold a couple nights next week. All in all compared to last year , this year wasn't to bad. Time to dig out the smelt nets.
After that, you are taking me smelting.
Buckets were dry as a bone. Guess we might be done for this year...
sounds good, we should make it happen.
Hold the phone Myrtle, it's 29 here right now. Maybe one more drip tomorrow?
Nice run here today, 8 gal. from 12 taps, expect about a gal. per tap tomorrow, best run of the year still to come at least in central Maine northwards.
looks like the sap should be flowin again for the next several days, time for one last hooraa!
Have 18 more gal. from the weekend run to boil as well as what runs the rest of this week then pulling, cleaning up, and getting ready for trolling season.
I see I'm not the only one with a little cloudy sediment on the bottom.
Exactly what I'm thinking too. Seems funny to say in April, but it might actually be too cold to run much today. Rest of the week looks pretty good though.Finished up almost a gal last night and still have close to 20 gal of sap buried in the snow so I should be able to do another big boil this weekend. After that - I quit! Gotta focus on getting the boat fixed up and ready for the water. That's a pretty versatile cooker you have there gamefisher! Have you noticed much of a difference boiling since setting up that windbreak?
Just sugar, means it boiled a tad to long, won't hurt a thing just throw in the micro for a few seconds when the jar gets down. A hydrometer is a great $25 investment for this hobby.
Better filtering helps with it.Not always from over boiling.
Niter
Checked the buckets tonight, only got a little over a gallon of pretty dark stuff. Left them out for at least another couple of days just in case. As my second season of this winds down, I thought I was satisfied and ready for it to end. Then I got word from my mom that dear old dad was working on a project for me. Either he liked the taste of the syrup, or he got tired of hearing me gripe about my limited boil capacity. He's about 3/4 finished fabricating a wood boiler for next season! He's apparently been doing more research than me. The stove is mostly finished, complete with a stainless boiling pan with baffles and a separate finishing pan. I'll post pics as soon as I have them, but for now, here's a stove that he built for someone about 10 years ago. I thought this was the cat's a$$, but it looks like caveman gear compared to what he's doing this time. Never thought I would say this on April 2, but I can't wait until next spring!(Image removed from quote.)
I just picked up some cheesecloth to filter my finished syrup with. Is this the recommended final filtering material for most of you? I'm tapping a couple of trees with my wildlife biology class and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I use cheese clothe folded four times. I put it a canning funnel and pour directly into the mason jar.