Hurricane Farm

We fired up our new evaporator and worked on our first batch of maple syrup yesterday.  We'll be finishing off a little over a gallon of syrup this morning!

We were warned by several people--both in books and in person--to NEVER let the level of the sap get too low.  Otherwise, we might scorth the pan and ruin it!  (Psst...I actually did this to one of my little pans last year, don't tell anyone.)  So to avoid this devastating mistake, we designed a measuring tool.  Note its fine wood grain, robust coloring, and tightly hewn edges.  With a little practice, we were able to keep the sap level just above that bottom line.  This meant 2" of sap in the pan.  Perfect for evaporating.

Here is a picture of the steam rolling off the top of the pan.  It took some adjustments, but we eventually learned the correct amount of wood to put in and the frequency of feeding the fire.  It needs the hottest fire imaginable! 

Here you can really see the fire cranking.  We were planning to use some of last season's left over--and really dry--hardwood for sugaring.  That is what I used to do.  However, the folks at the maple sugar making store suggested that we use pine, as it burns hotter and quicker and is more desirable for use in one of these units.  We had about 1/2 cord of slabwood from the local lumber mill left over from our summer parties and we used most of that yesterday.  Erica called the mill and they delivered a little more than 3 cords of slabwood yesterday morning.  That should be enough to hold us for the sugaring season, but the mill has plenty more and is more than happy to deliver.  That's a relief as we were a bit concerned about our truck when they loaded that first bundle in back in the summer.  The truck was riding LOW...

Back to the issue of keeping the sap level constant.  When in full blaze, the evaporator is supposed to handle 8-10 gallons per hour.  We did a little measuring and timing and it seems that we were close to 10 at our peak yesterday.  Lots of improvement from my exploits in previous years.  Below is a my "S.D. 3000."  We like Wallace and Gromit here on the farm and tend to name our inventions the way they do.  (Anyone recall the B.V. 6000?)  I used--that's right!--a five gallon pail and added some plumbing.  It takes a little patience to get the valve dripping just right, but the old "Sap Dripper" is doing its job.  I might switch over to a ball valve as they seem to be easier to adjust than the gate valve that I am currently using.

The "S.D. 3000" attaches to the evaporator via a hose and is able to supply fresh sap on demand.  Once I move the evaporator into the sugarhouse, I will be making the "S.D. 4000" which will not only drip sap into the pan but will preheat the sap.  I will be running some coils of copper tubing around the lower portion of the chimney pipe where it exits the firebox...That should heat up the sap as it drips from the bucket and help speed up the evaporation rate even more.  Who knows, maybe I'll work on that sooner...

My Dad came down again this weekend to lend a hand.  This photo finds him skimming the top of the sap to remove some undesirable content (a little ash still gets in from time to time as we are still boiling out-of-doors). 

Of course, there is lots of waiting while sugaring, so we decided to work on some other farm tasks.  We have a batch of replacement laying hens--about 45 or so--that need leg bands so we can identify their age.  My Dad figured out the banding tool right away.  Glad I didn't try this by myself.  I probably would have ended up banding my thumb to my index finger!

And then, of course, there is the tasting of the syrup...

Both Violet and Dad agree...it's not done yet.  This was Violet's third or fourth tasting.  She was out there with her wooden spoon just about the time that I finally got the fire going!

We'll post some photos of the finishing and bottling process as it progresses.