Temperatures for the last week have remained in the 40s and 50s, setting records in the Minneapolis region. As we added taps and repaired lines each day, we painfully watched the sap pour on the ground at the lower collection tank, until we could install our mechanical releaser and attached vacuum pump. We consistently saw 2-3 drops per second from the majority of taps, not just those on the warm, south side of the tree, which would have been consistent for the early season.
Our sugar concentration in the sap was 1.8% to 2.1%, quite typical for our sugarbush . We collected sap for 3 days, until we had 2200 gallons . By then, the reverse osmosis machine was installed which removed 75% of the water from the sap, thereby saving 75% of the energy and time to boil the sap into syrup. We cleaned our evaporator one final time by filling it with water and brought it to a roring boil.
We made our first batch of syrup ,a light grade color on February 7th, the earliest syrup has been made in 31 years.! The previous years were 2002 and 201- the third week in February!
Many surprises already, and the "regular" syrup season hasn't even started!!