Ideas for a candy/bottling room

[sugaring42long]

Thinking of adding on a dedicated candy and bottling room and I need ideas. I might do block construction for sanitary reasons but I am unsure. If anyone has any ideas or cool things the've seen I would appreciate it if you would take the time to share it with us.
Does anybody know of any sugarhouses that have an awesome candy kitchen I could visit? Might do a little traveling this weekend and if theres any "gotta see" operations I just might. Thanks ----- chuck

[mapleman3]

I had drawn up a plan for my sugarhouse, I wanted to do next year, but maybe the year after, it will be at least 12 x 10 with heat, insulated, small fridge and LP stove. lots of countertops, and maybe even a small sales couter with glass front. I was hoping to have a 36" to 40" round table in the center for lunch when I'm boiling. of course it's attatched to the sugarhouse with 2 doors, 1 in the front and 1 to the evap room.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Jim,

When you get done with yours, I send you up a plane ticket and you can come down and build one for me!

I don't have a candy kitchen but I bought a good guide last year about setting up one. It is put out by the Ontario Maple Producers association and is called Maple Plus. It has all the equipment you need and equipment that is nice to have. Various regulations are for Ontario but may be applicable elsewhere. It also has a lot of recipes for maple added products like cream, candy etc., using professional equipment or regular kitchen utensils. Also marketing tips. The guide didn't cost a lot but I didn't see it listed on their website so I don't know if it is still in print.

[maplemaniac65]

Just a little hint- build your room or sugarhouse twice as big as you think you will need for it fills up fast with stuff we think we will need. I started with a 2x6 and 12x24 sugarhouse. Ended up with a 16x50 when I bought my 2 1/2x8. All storage tanks and releaser and filter tanks are inside a 16x16 room with heat. The evaporator is in a room all by itself. I thought I had plenty of space until 26 people stopped by for lunch one day.

[MapleLady]

We did that put up a 16x32 building......3/4 evaporator, 1/4 bottling and candy making. The first thing my father-in-law said was should have built a bigger building. Go figure he's the one that decided on the size for us. In my bottling/candy area I have a sink and long counter top/shelves that double as display and cooling shelves, a gas stove and this year I would like to add a small refrigerator and possibly a candy machine if our budget will allow it. I'm thinking about purchasing those long low Rubbermaid containers to store my candy molds in this year.

Wisconsin requires that you have a door that closes between the two areas so we put in an extra window with a screen so that we can still talk to each other while he's filtering and I can keep up with the bottling plus it helps keep the bottling room warm.

If you need pallets usually about this time of year or earlier new phone books come out and the pallets are plastic so this is what our boxes of new glass sit on. If anyone else has anymore ideas let me know too!

Deb