2023 Maple Season – First Sap Collection

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by Lisa

We tapped trees for the last few days and have our first sap collection — thirteen five-gallon buckets (not completely full, but around 4.5 gallons per bucket … so not 65 gallons but at least 58.5 gallons) waiting to run through the reverse osmosis.

This year, our starting sap measured around 1.006-1.008 SG at around 50 degrees. The reverse osmosis is running at just under 100 psi (at 100 psi, we are not getting any sugar water out). The output sugar water is measuring at 1.022 … which is 3.7 times as concentrated as before we filtered the sap.

The flow rate is about a gallon every ten minutes, or six gallons an hour.

Maple Sap Reverse Osmosis

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by Lisa

Since I had the reverse osmosis system laid out for assembly, I figured I could take a picture to show how the filters are connected in series. Each filter “cleans” water out of the maple sap — that water is fed into a common output tube where we collect gallons of water (the clean water output lines are removed here so we can see the path maple sap travels, ignoring the clean water). We use this water for rinsing sappy stuff as we collect, filter, and boil the sap … also water we drink, bring out to the chickens and turkeys, give the cat, dump in the washer.

The “dirty stuff” that normally gets discarded? That’s the concentrated sap — each filter’s “dirty stuff” line is connected to the input of the next filter. Which then “cleans” more water from the sap and passes the “dirty stuff” down the line.

The maple “setup” is the reverse of the “drinking water” setup — below — where the “dirty stuff” goes to a common drain line for disposal and the clean water is sent to the input of the next filter for farther cleaning.

Harissa Paste Recipe

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by Lisa

Ingredients:

  • 15-20 dried guajillo peppers
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1/4 tsp caraway seeds
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

  • Cover dried peppers with boiling water and allow to sit for 20-30 minutes.
  • Heat a skillet and toast spice seeds for a few minutes. Then crush seeds with a mortar and pestle.
  • Drain the peppers.
  • Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend into a smooth paste.

Spicy Garbanzo Soup

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by Lisa

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 large carrot, diced
  • 6 cloves of garlic, thickly sliced
  • 2 tbsp harissa paste
  • 14 oz can of garbanzo beans
  • 8 cups of stock
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

  • Saute onion and garlic in harissa paste
  • Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 15-20 minutes until garbanzo beans are cooked

Office Whiteboard

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by Lisa

One giant whiteboard is now hanging in our office — it’s 10′ long! It took all three of us to hold the board and get it mounted. The brackets are hidden behind the board, making installation more challenging but aesthetically improved over brackets jutting up from the board.