Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a sophomore student who started a maple syrup operation from scratch this year. I was amazed at the dedication he had! I completed the visit with Mr. Steinfelt and his family on a cold Saturday morning.
We began the visit by discussing the students success so far this season. The weather wasn't very cooperative this year, which resulted in a slight decrease in production than anticipated. We met the student at his grandfathers house, where his production is set up. First, we went to check out his evaporator, and talked about how he hoped to get a larger one when he was financially able. His evaporator is in the shop on his grandfathers property. After we finished there, we all got in the vehicle and went out to the field. Here we were able to see the students sap collection set up. He chose to run line and collect all of the syrup in one collection tank, rather than the traditional tap and bucket. In doing this, he was able to tap a larger number of trees. The lines all ran downhill to the collection tank, so the sap was running solely by gravity
When we got to his collection tank Mr. Steinfelt noticed that the line made a slight upward turn right before it entered the tank, causing for a collection of sap that was not running into the tank. Mr. Steinfelt suggested that he move the tank just a little further down hill to prevent that from happening.
Overall, I really enjoyed this visit! I had never seen a maple operation during actual maple syrup season! Before we left, we talked with the student about concerns he had about his AET, which he has been using to keep his records in. We checked his account before we left school on Friday, so Mr. Steinfelt had some specific tips that he offered.
Before leaving, we set up a time for the student to come work individually with us to ensure his understanding of how AET works.
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