Portage River Farm

This has been a weekend of steam and woodsmoke. The sap started boiling at 3:30pm on Saturday (we took the kids to a movie first). I set the sap aside and knocked off for the night at about 10:30pm. Sunday morning I had it boiling again by about 11am and have been at it non-stop until now. It is 1am on Monday morning and it is finally very nearly syrup.

This time around I achieved what I consider three major improvements to the process:

1) I spent some time modifying the woodstove to better function as an evaporator. I removed the old lid and bent the metal until the steam pan could sit fully down flush with the surface and level. This change made the task of evaporating so much easier! The pan could now hold many more gallons of sap and no longer required constant vigilance to prevent scorching. It also effectively reduced the height of the firebox thus increasing the heat directed into the pan and improving the efficiency of firewood useage.

2) I figured out the secret to filtering the syrup. During the last run I waited until the syrup had reached the final sugar concentration before attempting to filter it. The thick liquid took FOREVER to drip through the wool cloth and I had to reheat it again before bottling. This time I filtered the syrup before it was fully thickened. The resulting syrup is just as clear and it was so much easier to pour it through the filter when it was still thin.

3) During the last run, I had too much heat under the syrup during the final minutes of boiling and am sure that I overshot the specific gravity before I had turned it off. This time, I crept up on the final sugar concentration and reduced the heat gradually until it was just simmering. As a result, I was able to control the quality of the syrup and get exactly the concentration I wanted.

These changes led to a much more pleasant and controlled sugaring experience. Now if I could only find a way to do it in a few hours instead of a couple of days I'd be all set! The five bottles of syrup from this run are shown in the picture. The bottle of store bought syrup is there for comparison purposes. Syrup is graded by color with the lighter color being the better product. You can judge for yourself.