Well 16 mostly full buckets is how I started our first boil today. I say mostly full because 5 gallons is almost at the very top. I tend to keep them just below the outside lip which puts them in the neighborhood of 4 gallons. So 64 gallons of sap that needs to be reduced to around 8 gallons or so of sweet.
We got started after lunch, hoping for it to warm up a bit. It did not… I think it was in the mid 20’s for most of the day which would not have been so bad if it were not for the high winds that had kicked up. Despite the weather I was able to pack the evaporator full of wood and boil hard.
This was also the first time I picked up some Defoamer from Bascom’s Maple Farm. All I can say is wow, what a difference. I was able to run the evaporator hotter and faster than I have ever done before. If I can recommend on thing this year it would be to buy a bottle of this stuff. Literally one drop of this liquid in my syrup pan and the pan which was foaming up something fierce quieted right down for the rest of my boil. Only wish I had tried this stuff sooner.
Wendy even got a few minutes and a couple of refresher lessons on running the evaporator today.
Nothing like some chicken stir fry outside watching the sap boil at dinner time. If only it were maple chicken stir fry! Well hopefully the evaporator has cooled down by now so we can pull the sweet out of the pan.
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