nova scotia 2020

[CBLA]

I collected 160 liters of sap on Wednesday. I froze it for a later boil.

[Syrup By The Sea]

One more small point to CBLA. All of my storage containers had a mix of ice/slush in them when I was doing the boil, so that hindered the speed of the boiling/evaporation as well.

nhdog, Bill's place is close to the New Hampshire boarder. I started the drive in the morning and stayed there overnight, then met up with Bill the next morning. He and his helper helped me get the evaporator into my vehicle and he provided a receipt with the purchase, which I then presented to the boarder agent on the way back and paid the applicable duty, no probs. It was funny when the officers looked in my car and questioned what I was bringing back. It took quite a bit of explaining to convince them that it was a device for processing maple syrup...they seemed suspicious for sure. Be careful if you get a chance to purchase a second-hand one that already has the firebrick installed, the drive could cause the mortar to crack and break up. On the whole, I am super impressed by its simplicity and efficiency. Mine doesn't have a whole lot of bells and whistle but most certainly gets the job done. Very solid, well made and I highly recommend getting the blower add-on. I even had wheels installed on the front legs and had two removable round stock handle pockets welded to either side so you can wheel it outside and store it inside depending on your setup. Heavy, but doable.

[Syrup By The Sea]

Yeah, my ratios have been much better in previous years from what I remember but I'll have to look at my past records to verify. I now use ice cream buckets with a sealed lid to collect the sap, and the hose is in the side of the bucket, so not much of a chance for any significant water to get in there. All of the sap was very clear as well. I donated ~60L of fresh sap to a friend last weekend so he could do a small boil and he ended up with 550ml of finished, so ~1:100 ratio, almost like tapping birch!!