nova scotia 2020

[lilskipper]

Hey all new to forum and new to maple syrup, got a the addiction last year. Had 6 buckets on propane burner , up graded to 36 buckets and 20 on tap for this year. Mostly red maples got about 50gal of sap last week. Boiling now on a lapierre Waterloo small 3 by 2 pan going well. Get some good weather be nice to see some more sap flowing here in the northeast

[Syrup By The Sea]

Boiled ~175L today and ended up with a little over 2L of finished. I'm using a WF Mason (2x3) with a blower. I drove all the way down to southern Maine and picked it up at his house. Cool guy!!!

[CBLA]

Syrup by the Sea, what is your evaporation rate like on the Mason?

[nhdog]

syrup by the sea. i am going to call bill and order his 2x3 or the 2x4 but i have been waiting to find out about getting it back across the border. did you have any problems or difficulties other than the tax. what happened when you came back??

[Syrup By The Sea]

CBLA, with the ~175L I had, it took roughly 4.5 hours to reduce it to ~10L....I finished the remainder on the stove. So, 35L/hr maybe?? There were a few factors as well. I used up some softwood I had sitting outside. It was slightly damp but well seasoned. I have only used hardwood in the past which burns longer so you don't have to feed the fire as much. I found I lost my rolling boil a few times due to the wood supply burning down so quickly. I also kept the blower at a bit over medium since I wasn't in a rush to get it done quickly since the day was nice. As a side note: I found the finished syrup was very clear this year (last year it was cloudy after filtering but it settled out over a few month). This run had very little sugar sand to filter out and I had next to no accumulation of the nitre on the rim of the pan. I find keeping the foam off of the sides during the boil with a wooden spoon seemed to help it from sticking on and burning, so easier clean up afterwards.

[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.

[nhdog]

hope everyone has been having the same runs as i had this pass week . my poor little arch can only do 6 to 7 gal.per hour and i got behind so i'm kind of glad to see a couple days of cold temps. i've only got 3 sugar the rest are red but this year they seem to be doing much better than before. so i spent the last 2 days finishing of my near syrup and have put up a little over 6 gal.from my 70 taps.

[Danielb]

I boiled wednesday, thursday, and sunday in the last week. Boiled about 320 gallons or sap over the 3 days, I made about 6.5 gallons of syrup over the 3 days. Still have my pans sweet, so hopefully today will produce enough sap to fire up again

[nhdog]

i ran across this the other day. i don't know if your other half shares the same enjoyment as those of us who set around watching the fire as the pans bellow up steam or perhaps they just think we are a little off and should find some way more useful to spend our time. In any case have them watch this video with you. Guaranteed to at least make them smile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqreE_O6mBU&app=desktop

[Pdiamond]

nhdog
Awesome video. When my wife gets home tomorrow I'll have her watch it.