One weekend down, more to go. We’ve been sugaring.
I was able to work from home last Friday (woohoo) because the Internet was wonky at the office, so I snuck off to start boiling (in all honesty, I did work while I was there – yeah for wireless). We ended up getting just over a gallon of syrup. Yummy stuff.
OK, remember the taps we put out last time? Those have been filling up and we’ve collected them into 32 gallon barrels. Those have been kept out of the sun in a cool place for a couple of days.
Our evaporator, which is pretty primitive (although it gets the job done), is a set of pans at two levels. The first, higher pan is used to preheat the sap (and reduce it slightly). That is then ladled into the main reducing pan which is at a higher heat on the back of the firebox right by the stovepipe. The key is to keep the hot pan at a rolling boil. Things really get steamy when it’s gets going.
Your job, when you are tending the evaporator, is to keep the fire fed and roaring, and making sure that the pans are kept full. It keeps you busy.
We are thinking through a new design for our next evaporator. I’m itching to get our evaporation rate up. I need to get some thermal brinks to insulate and build a better set up for the firebox. A dedicated blower hose that feeds the bottom of the firebox would be a good idea. Something you could hook a squirrelcage fan to that was on a speed regulator.
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