You know you're a maple addict when....

[aamyotte]

I know things are slow here at the moment, but as one of the relatively few female members here, I was quite flattered to be asked for advice and details on my barrel evaporator build...by a guy no less lol :-) Nice to know that someone is willing to ask me for advice on such matters!

Do you have pictures of your evaporator?

[Galena]

...when, after mopping up a syrup spill with towels and rags, you actually think about trying to salvage the spilled syrup ;-)

[Galena]

...after 16 seasons you finally scorch pans, including one that continues to scorch as the pan is being emptied!!!! I know i have good sugar content but never even thought to add distilled water to prevent that from happening... instead I stupidly added more sap...my arms are gonna get a good scrubbing workout now lol :-)

[Galena]

BTW all I discovered a cool hack for cleaning rust. I repaired the base of my sugar shack's smokestack but there was still a lot of rust around the base of it, from rain running down the chimney and sap occasionally sloshing over. I used a wire brush to get rid of the worst of it, and was looking fort an eco-friendly way to clean the remaining rust off.

That's when I learned of this hack: dish soap and a cut potato! Put a potato, cut side down, into a shallow dish of dish soap and let it sit a few minutes (I went to about 20) so the potato absorbs it. Then put the potato chunk on the rusted areas. Let it sit for about an hour (think I went closer to 90 min). Then rub with the potato....rust comes off!!!! Rinse with water and let air-dry, though I cheated and used a damp rag followed by a dry one.

With the smokestack itself, I didn't even wait to let it sit, just rubbed the areas with the cut soapy potato chunks. Came off immediately.

The reason this works is that potatoes contain oxalic acid. That is a key ingredient in all the nasty chemical rust cleaners, which are usually expensive and not enviro friendly. The oxalic acid and dish soap create a chemical reaction and loosens up rust.

Of course as you're using soap, rinse anything that contains sap or syrup really well so as avoid soapy flavours. Hope this helps!

As always I forgot to take a 'before' pic, but pretty sure I have other rusty items around that I can give the same treatment to.