I'm in for around $700 with a barrel evaporator, a Christmas present, and tubing. I tapped in January and am on my second run. No RO, no vacuum. If I make ten gallons of syrup, I'd be very happy. This year I'll probably get no more than five.

Boiling unconcentrated sap is work. Wood is work and it takes a lot of wood. But I don't hurry the boiling, don't get the stack hotter than the most efficient range, no glowing stack. Mine is a two food pan system and so far, I like it pretty well. Thought about using one bigger pan, but that reduces the surface area exposed to the flame. Two pans exposes two bottoms and six sides versus one bottom and four sides in a larger pan.

I don't spend all my time watching the fire. I can do chores around the house or read or watch TV while keeping the fire a size that doesn't waste heat up the stack. I split my wood, mostly ash, fairly small so it burns hot in a small alternating stack, fed often. I can let it go out at any time and go to sleep.

My syrup tastes buttery smooth, tastier than any commercial syrup I've ever tasted. It's my experience that unconcentrated sap boiled on a wood fire tastes better than commercial systems using highly concentrated sap boiled with wood and far better than systems using oil. My current tapping is almost all sugar maple. Years ago, when I had more taps in a different bush, half were red maple, the syrup was also buttery smooth. Once boiled the red maples separately, and the red maple syrup taste was especially buttery.

One last point. Because I make syrup only for family, I don't filter it. I let the niter settle out, takes a couple days to clear, pour the clear into finish jars, heat and seal them, and keep pouring the niter on top of niter till it fills a jar to get the maximum clear syrup out of it. Oh, and I use wide mouth half gallon and quart canning jars.