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TECHNICAL SUPPORT FOR MAPLE
Do you ship Maple Products to customers? Do you want to ship them
easily and reasonably? Run, don’t walk to your local Post Office and
ask for O-FRB1 & O-FRB2. They are free shipping cartons. One is 11”
X 8 ½” X 5 ½” and the other is 12” X 3.5” X 14”. Nice FREE shipping
cartons. Now, fill these boxes with anything you can fit in them and
ship them to your customers in California, Hawaii, or Alaska or
anywhere in the U. S. or to the Military anywhere for $7.70. A
gallon can will fit nicely or 3 half gallons (weighing 19 pounds) or
6 quarts in cans. 12 plastic pound jars of Maple Cream will fit with
room to spare. Ship anything for $7.70. If you have need to ship a
12” X 3.5” X 14” slab of Granite or lead you can ship it for $7.70
flat rate. Your customer will love you and the 2 day delivery.
Another tip for shippers. FedEx Ground will ship for at least 10%
less than UPS.
If you have any Syrup that isn’t hot packed but stored in drums,
rolling the drums every 2 or 3 weeks will keep it from molding or
fermenting. It must be at standard density (66 – 68 Brix) however.
L. J. writes: Hi Terry,
I was so excited to see your TSFM column in the newsletter! My
husband and I make syrup in H (a small operation) and I tried candy
last year for the first time. I had great success and great
failures. My most common problem was candy that just didn’t
harden-was more like taffy. I haven’t found much information about
the process. I’ve used mostly early syrup, checked the boiling point
of water, had a quicker boil down with a drop of oil added. I let
the cooked syrup (cooked to about 242 degrees) sit unmoved till it
cools to 180-190 and stir and pour into molds. I make enough for 40
little Maple leafs at one time. How long or hard should I stir
before pouring into the molds?
L. J.
TSFM wrote: Hi L.
I checked the Maple Syrup Producers Manual and they say you should
take your Syrup to 248 degrees. You are going 6 degrees lower and
that is enough to put you on the border-line for success. Try that
change & let me know how it works. One thing you are likely to find
is that the Syrup, when you stir it, will react and start changing
sooner, and it will give you less time to get it into the molds. You
still must wait until you see some change in the product before
pouring. How fast you stir may or may not speed up the reaction, I’m
not sure. Everything else about your process seems quite sound.
T.D.
L. H. writes Hi Terry,
Thank you for sending us your candy and cream recipes. We will try
them out.
We have a question for you. At Clare you were talking about using
diatomite to filter the syrup. We do not have a filter press, but
use cloth filters. We want to know – do you use both a light and a
heavy filter, and how much powder do you put on the filter? We tried
it tonight, and the syrup did not seem to filter thru the two
thicknesses. What did we do wrong?
L. H.
TSFM wrote: Hi,
First question I have – was the Syrup hot enough? Then, was it
cooked beyond 67 Brix? These two items will slow filtering
considerably. I mostly used only the heavy orlon filter when I used
this method. I now use a filter press. I had used a flat 36” X 36”
and the pre-filters I used were not very strong and would tear, so I
gave up on them. I believe they make them stronger now. If I were
using a cone filter I would pour in at least 2 quarts of DE to start
or mix it with the Syrup ready to be filtered. It would depend on
how much Syrup I was filtering. Be generous with it. DE will only
filter until each particle of it is full of dirt, nitre, sand, or
silt. Each particle is like a sponge and it’s function is to trap
nitre on the way to the cloth filter thereby extending the
usefulness of the cloth.
T. D.
Call 1-800-50MAPLE or E-mail
tdmaple@up.net or write with your questions to:
Terry DeLoughary
N17934 Eustis Road
Bark River, MI 49807 |
