Personal shout outs to outstanding ideas

[Run Forest Run!]

As I was effortlessly cleaning the soot and crud from the bottom of my SS pan I was thinking to myself just how lucky I was to have been given the tip to soap the bottom the pans before putting them over the heat!

So a big thank-you to Happy Thoughts for sharing that fantastic tip!

Another big thank-you to BrutemanAl for telling me the secret to getting my turkey fryer to work properly. What a lifesaver he is!

I have a couple of other big thank-yous to mention, but I want to check back through some posts to try and credit the proper people for the ideas.

. . . . in the meantime does anyone else want to offer a personal shout-out to someone who "showed them the light" in some small or large part of their sugaring process? If you can't think of who it was exactly, that's OK, just tell us what the tip was! We could all stand to be reminded of some of the real gems buried in the hundred of threads on this forum.

[MapleLady]

My big Thank You of the season goes out to you ~ Karen, for your tips on filtering our syrup with the 'jelly bag' method! It's a huge improvement over what I was doing! :)

[Cindee]

what is the jelly bag method for filtering?

[jnmartin]

...Another big thank-you to BrutemanAl for telling me the secret to getting my turkey fryer to work properly. What a lifesaver he is!

I tried a search for Bruteman's tip but came up empty handed. Could you please repeat please.

[Diesel Pro]

As I was effortlessly cleaning the soot and crud from the bottom of my SS pan I was thinking to myself just how lucky I was to have been given the tip to soap the bottom the pans before putting them over the heat!

So a big thank-you to Happy Thoughts for sharing that fantastic tip!

Another big thank-you to BrutemanAl for telling me the secret to getting my turkey fryer to work properly. What a lifesaver he is!

I have a couple of other big thank-yous to mention, but I want to check back through some posts to try and credit the proper people for the ideas.

. . . . in the meantime does anyone else want to offer a personal shout-out to someone who "showed them the light" in some small or large part of their sugaring process? If you can't think of who it was exactly, that's OK, just tell us what the tip was! We could all stand to be reminded of some of the real gems buried in the hundred of threads on this forum.

Could you elaborate on the soap trick please? I did an advanced search on the keyword soap and author happy thoughts and came back no matches.

[happy thoughts]

Thanks Karen, but I can't really take credit for something I learned as a Girl Scout:) Soap trick is to rub the bottom of your steam pans really well with bar soap. I've read liquid dish detergent can be used, too.

[TerryEspo]

There are many people I could thank, so many I cant recall all the names.

Couple ideas I am thankful for are,

- criss-crossing the wood in the arch,
- running 1"-2" in the pan, not 4"-5" like I used to do,
- size of pieces of wood going into arch
- helping with my arch design,
- tubing directions
- many, many, many more too.

Thanks Everyone for their help, pics, videos, stories and posts. Great Site.

Terry

[jputney]

I say thank you for almost everything I know about maple syrup. I look through the posts and almost everyday I see something and say DUH!!! why didn't I think of that. Thanks to all who post tips and arch designs and Ideas.

[CampHamp]

Karen - Thanks for the idea of soaking my filters in the warm sap to get the syrup back into production instead of just rinsing it all down the sink! -Jamie

[Run Forest Run!]

I tried a search for Bruteman's tip but came up empty handed. Could you please repeat please.

Al told me to open my propane valve first, then slowly open the valve on the fryer. Doing it the opposite way caused some small damper in the fryer's gas line to shut off the flow of gas, making me believe my fryer was broken. As long as it do it in that order, everything is great.

[Run Forest Run!]

what is the jelly bag method for filtering?

Cindee, I use a free standing jelly bag along with a couple of prefilters instead of the thick wool sryup filter. It's easier and less wasteful for those of us who make small batches of syrup at one time. If your jelly bag is not doing a good job of filtering, then just use three prefilters over the jelly bag stand and that should work for you too.

I'm glad that this idea has helped some people on here. I'm not exactly a well-seasoned sugarer, but am soaking up as much of the collective knowledge as possible.

[PerryW]

I carry blue & red survey flagging in my apron during leak patrol.

I use the blue flagging to tighten up laterals that have a sag in them. Much easier and faster than cutting and refitting the tubing especially during a run. The red flagging I use to mark problems in the tubing system that need to be fixed at a later date.

[Marcus]

I have learned a lot from this site,thanks to everyone. I still read the new posts daily, even though I am done this year. I do landscape and I am always looking at the maple trees now. Don I can't remember when your surgery is, but pray everything comes out okay.
Marcus Yoder

[PerryW]

Karen - Thanks for the idea of soaking my filters in the warm sap to get the syrup back into production instead of just rinsing it all down the sink! -Jamie

I dip my used syrup filters in the hot sap in the back pan a few times, then put them in a pail and let them drain out.

[Run Forest Run!]

PerryW, that really works well doesn't it?! I must say to CampHamp however, that I can't take credit for that idea. I read it on here and have yet to be able to offer the appropriate credit to the forum member who mentioned it to me. So to that person, thank-you!

I did take it to the next level (obsessive level :lol:) by rinsing and swishing all of my ladels, funnels and syrup pots in either fresh sap or a little water and saving that in the freezer to put into my next pan of boiling sap. I just won't let one drop of sweet stuff go.