In today’s blog post I will provide an update on the Vermont Cabane De Sucre project. I will then provide some information on how unique a maple tree is and how it produces maple sap and how we will leverage the use of a vacuum system to increase the sap production with the trees on the property.
But first, I want to extend a warm Happy New Year to all of you. Like many of you, we took some time off over the holidays to spend it with family and friends getting caught up on all that is life and its offering of good and challenges. Our three-year-old granddaughter who lives with us at the moment was full of anticipation for the arrival of Santa, his reindeer and of course his presents. Our Southern family visited with grandkids. The older kids also enjoying the exciting time of wrapped presents under the Christmas tree, Christmas Stockings, and the making of a gingerbread house, and the grownups looking forward to a Christmas dinner or two and the wonderful leftovers. Charla and I cherished the time we had with everyone and missed everyone as soon as they left.
Also, this year, to my dismay, I came down with the flu at the beginning of the new year, (I got a flu shot) and was able to manage only the minimum responsibilities of my job for a week, so I’m a little tardy on these weekly posts.
The Vermont Cabane De Sucre project continues to march forward, and in some cases in circles. Starting with the marching forward. I’m happy to report our sugarhouse savings account is growing. We continue to put money in each payday. I have managed to sell more of my old coins since the last update and added one sold motorcycle (BigBlue). This summer, I am hoping to sell the second motorcycle (Jabba). Our sugarhouse account now sits at $17,159. We have $35,841 to go. The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step - Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu.
The second part of the project that is going in circles a little is the sizing and type of evaporator. I’m thankful to have the opportunity to make plans, reconsider, make plans and reconsider again before the building of the sugarhouse. After having a short discussion with Jaret, the local Leader Evaporator representative in Vermont’s NEK, he asked some deeper probing questions about the sugarbush, and our plans and thoughts on the use of a vacuum system, the use of a Reverse Osmosis (RO for short) machine, and the potential use of a pre-heating system. I’m going to leave the discussion of a vacuum system for a paragraph or two later in the post. It will be more relevant, and I like to create a little suspense along the way.
An RO machine reduces the amount of water in maple sap. One of the most resource intensive processes in the making of maple syrup is the process of boiling the water out of the maple sap to the point it is maple syrup. On average, it takes about 40 gallons of maple sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. It takes a lot of energy to boil the 39 gallons of water away for the one gallon of syrup. The idea of an RO machine is to remove a significant amount of water out of the maple sap before you start boiling the remaining amount to finish the concentrate into syrup. An RO machine separates water and the maple sap sugar molecules. More information can be found at the University of Vermont’s website https://www.uvm.edu/news/story/proctors-latest-maple-innovation-weekends.
For many syrup producers, an RO machine is a game changer in the battle for efficiency and reduced costs within the process of making maple syrup. I acknowledge the financial fundamentals. I’m all for technology, however, I still have a bit of a contrarian view to this approach. I will be the first to admit that I have no experience with using an RO. My opinion is only based on what I have read. I will need to gain some industry experience before I can make an informed opinion. However, I think the process to separate water molecules from sugar molecules is an incredibly delicate process. Is it possible that we are removing some of the good molecules and retaining some of the molecules we want to remove. Then, when that is concentrated down, there could be an amplification of taste for better or for worse. My thought process is likely lacking education. For now, I will look for efficiency in other ways. One of those potential ways is with the use of a pre-heating system.
Why should we consider the use of a pre-heating system? If you put a pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil, and you add cold water to it, it will slow, if not stop the boiling process until the mixed water is heated enough to bring it back to a boil. Now think of doing this constantly. That is essentially what is happening as fresh sap enters the evaporator and is mixed with the boiling sap. A pre-heating system is a device with pipes, and collection chambers to uses steam to pre-heat maple sap.
The concept is to use the steam generated from the evaporator, that normally flows up and outside of the sugarhouse, to pre-heat, to an almost boiling temperature, the fresh sap coming into the evaporator. I’m able to wrap my head around this a little easier than an RO. For more information on studies that have been done, please see https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/sappreheaters.pdf
The use of a pre-heater is a significant efficiency advantage. By adding a pre-heater to the evaporator, we can reduce the size of the evaporator and still get to a “gallons per hour” evaporation rate needed to support the number of trees we are looking to have. There is a cost to a pre-heater, and so I’m going through the discussion process with the Leader Evaporator representative to get a cost quote on a reduced size evaporator with the added cost of a pre-heating system.
Charla and I will need to decide shortly what evaporator and add-on options we want. There is about a year long backorder for a Leader Evaporator. So to take delivery in the summer of 2024, we will need to order in the summer of 2023. In addition, Leader Evaporator offers a 10% discount if orders are placed before June 1st so our goal is to save 10% and order before June 1st of 2023.
In a preceding paragraph, I mentioned the use of a vacuum system in our sugaring operation. The primary reason to use a vacuum system is to allow the sap to start running earlier in the day, more flow during the day, and run later at the end of the day. Contrary to a popular belief, the vacuum system isn’t pulling the sap out of the tree directly, rather it is reducing the pressure outside of the tree, that allows the sap to more easily run out of the tree.
Maple trees (along with Walnut) are different from most other tree types in how they are structured internally and what causes sap to move up and down the tree. Barb Lachenbruch shares a great article at https://barblachenbruch.com/2019/02/12/why-do-maples-put-sugar-in-the-sap-in-winter/ on the scientific details. I needed to provide my brain with a couple of mental breaks to understand some of what she was writing. The article discusses the internal cellular makeup of the maple tree and how the internal plumbing works. Suffice to say, our beloved maple trees are uniquely special.
This second article contains a wonderful picture of the Sap flow mechanisms. It was taken from maple mini_manual.pdf that was produced by Lynn Wolfe at the University of Vermont Burlington, Vermont.
When the temperature gets below freezing, the inside of the tree turns negative in relation to the atmospheric pressure outside the tree, creating a suction or vacuum such that sap is pulled up into the tree from its root system. Scientists have been able to demonstrate this with tubing connected to the tree through a tree spout and when the temperature went below freezing, the tree actually pulled the water through the tubing into itself. Some old timer sugar makers have witnessed the movement of sap in tubing systems shift toward the tree when the temperature moved below freezing. When the temperature warms up, the pressure inside the tree turns positive vs the outside atmospheric pressure and sap can flow from the tree.
It is only during the sea-saw period that maple sugar makers can make maple syrup which on average is March through mid-April of each year.
Now back to the topic of Vacuum. Some very smart people figured out that if the change in atmospheric pressure relative to the inside and outside of the tree is what turns the sap on and off, maybe we can artificially manipulate the pressure outside the tree relative to the pressure inside the tree. Hence, maple sap vacuum systems were born. By creating an artificially low pressure outside the tree, we can create an environment where the sap will start running earlier in the morning more fuller during the day and run later at night.
Timothy D. Perkins, Director University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center states a vacuum system can increase maple sap production from 50% to 200% (https://mapleresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/SapVac.pdf).
In summary, our Vermont Cabane De Sucre project continues to evolve. We will decide before June 1st on what we want for an evaporator. We will place an order for the evaporator and holding tanks through our Leader Evaporator sales rep in Vermont’s NEK. These two items are the lion’s share of the startup costs. People smarter than me state there is a significant return on investment to using a vacuum system, so we plan on moving forward with what that entails. I’m convinced on the use of a pre-heater system; it is more of a question do we implement now or wait a year and do an add-on. I’m on the fence when it comes to Reverse Osmosis (RO). I know a lot of producers do use it and swear by the financials of the use of it. I will hold on to this option for now and gain some industry experience.
At some point soon, Charla and I will be spending time at the sugarbush confirming tree count, and searching for trees to cut for the sugarhouse support structure. I have purchased many add-on items for the ATV to allow us to use it in the sugarbush and I will be installing them. We will also be visiting a couple of sugaring operations to see their setup and what we may have forgotten in our plans that we need to revise.
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