The Making of Maple Syrup

I recently got to present at Sustain Jefferson's Makerspace Discovery Meeting.  I exhibited the maple syrup rocket stove that I worked on building with Greg David and the top bar beehive that I am working on making.  I actually was featured in a picture on the Watertown Daily Times front cover.  The makerspace will be a place for people to get together in the community to work on projects such as wood working, metal working, knitting, crafting, sewing, incubate business and much more.
The presentation I gave highlighted the improvements to the maple sugaring operation over the past 6 years.  I wanted to share some of what I have done over the past years here.

 The original way of tapping and collecting the sap.  We now use a 5 gallon bucket that sits on the ground and is connected to the spile with a piece of flexible hose.

The first year I made a crude fire box with concrete blocks and a wire grill rack to support flimsy aluminum pans.  It worked okay but wasn't very efficient.

Still using the same system - different view.

The small firebox between the concrete blocks.

A slightly more elegant system with mix-matched diameter chimney pipes.

An improved system.  Still with mix-matched chimney pipe but now the flimsy aluminum trays are sitting on top of a turkey smoker (large metal box) with sides on it to block the wind.

Automatic sap injector.  A food grade rain barrel and hose that would allow a direct flow of sap into the pans.

The automatic sap injector line running downhill to the operation.  Note the use of a 2X4 to hold the chimney up.

The automatic sap injector feeds into copper coil around the chimney to pre-heat the sap.  This year the pan became stainless steel catering pan and is cut into the turkey smoker.  The first boil of that year had the pan sitting on top but Alicia and Carlo noticed that it wasn't transferring heat that well and began to punch holes through the fire box.

The new shiny door!

Trying to increase surface area and chimney length to get a more efficient boil.  The pan rested on the wire rack but unfortunately didn't get very hot.

The front view of the evaporator.

There always is a lot of this - sitting a waiting.

Last year at the farm we boiled the sap on a propane cook stove.  Gladly this year with the high propane prices we are not.

I tried to make a small rocket stove out of bricks but unfortunately the chimney wasn't very tall and it didn't draft well.  We ended up with ash in the syrup which wasn't so yummy.

The rocket stove in action and slowly boiling away the sap.

This is the firebox of the rocket stove.  It burns efficiently but will need some improvements before it can really keep up with the evaporation ability of the other new evaporator.

The big evaporator built this year.  It holds around 7 gallons of sap at a time and we were able to get a 3 gallon/hour evaporation rate this year.  I think we can easily increase that if we get it a little bit more level, have more draft control, and tend it more frequently for the next boil down.

The three trays steaming and boiling away.

The firebox is lined with bricks which help to hold the heat in and a baffle at the back forces the flames to touch the pans.  It is still warm the next morning and was still smoking some 12 hours after we finished.

I'd love to hear any thoughts on ways to improve it or if you have any questions on making syrup yourself.

Neal

2014 Garden Plans

We are keeping things simple this year with the little one due to arrive in July. We ordered all our seeds from the Sand Hill Preservation Center. They are a smaller company that offers heirloom seeds, and we've had good experience working with them in the past. We limited our choices of seeds that need to be started in flats this year because we will be traveling quite a bit this spring. Also, last year we started seeds to early and had frost issues in our potting shed. Many of our choices this year can be planted straight in the ground and not have to be fussed with very much over the summer (pruning, staking, etc).

Here's what we've got:
Collards (Morris Heading)
Spinach (America)
Onion (Red Burgundy)
Perennial Onion (Egyptian Winter)
Beets (Colossal Red Mangel- the little ones are supposed to be good for eating and supposedly the chickens will like the larger ones. We shall see)
Popcorn (Fireside)
Luffa (Angled- for washing with... not eating)
Winter Squash (Sibley)
Winter Squash (Red Kuri- complementary)
Tomato (Abraham Lincoln- complementary)
Sage (Broadleaf)
Dill (Mammoth)
Lovage (this is an herb that tastes like celery)

Theoretically we should have planted the onions by now and should just be starting the collards and spinach. Realistically, we are going to Maine for an extended weekend trip to visit our sisters so this will get started a bit late. Oh well... it's been a slow start to spring anyway.

Eat down the pantry 2014

Last year we started our eat down the pantry challenge in May. It was definitely helpful but I remember thinking that it would be better to start it earlier in the season next time because we wanted to use up the freezer veggies before the fresh veggies were available. So this year we are starting our challenge in March and going into April. Like last year, we will be buying dairy as we need it and may buy fresh veggies if we use up all of our frozen and dried veggies.

I did an inventory of our pantry items with the exception of the grains and beans. I also inventoried the kitchen freezer. There are more meats and probably more frozen fruits and veggies in the deep freezers. We are going to have our hands full just trying to get through the food that is already in the house though so I didn't bother inventorying the deep-freeze. 

I think the most difficult things to use up it will be the jams, pickles and chutneys. If anyone has recipe ideas for using these please let us know. We got on a kick because we had so much produce this summer but we didn't consider how much of it we could actually use in the winter. Oops.

Seems like the freezer items will be pretty easy to use. We will post recipes and pictures as we go along if we find anything particularly interesting. Now it's time for me to start menu planning.

Maple Syrup Evaporator

Its been a very long time since I have guest posted on here.  Alicia has been very busy working on trying to start her own postpartum doula business as well as helping to plan the Midwest Women's Herbal Conference.  We have also been cross country skiing a lot and this winter has been the best in my memory for it.  The snow is still here on the ground but we are beginning to think about Maple Syrupping season.  I recently got an old oil tank previously used for heating oil but it had a small hole and so our friend Dale had it sitting at his farm waiting for a great use for it.  He helped me look-up some great ideas on YouTube and this is a modification of one of the ideas.

Here I am decked out in my PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) after I cut the top off for the placement of the pans.

Oil drum tank with the top cut off.  The fastest way to cut it was with the angle grinder which is sitting to the right of the tank.

The inside is lined with bricks to insulate it and raise up the location of the fire.  I am cutting a door opening in the front.  In the picture you can kind of see the orange glow of the sparks flying from me cutting the metal.  That is my favourite part of using the angle grinder.  Thanks to Mike Kelly from High Meadow Farm who came over and helped me load it up with bricks, level it and figure out the logistics of where the door should be.

The tank is in its final home next to the corn crib and somewhat sheltered from the wind.

 

 

This is just the first stages of making our big evaporator.  I will also be trying out making a smaller one using a rocket stove from Greg David.  Check back soon to see the progress. - Neal