Greetings all, Ken here. I spent the afternoon and evening boiling sap for syrup. Today I boiled down about 15 Imperial gallons of sap (18 American gallons) or 68 litres and this was the first day I really had a long session of boiling and I made good progress. All told I've boiled down about 100 litres so far. We've collected about 500 litres of sap to date and I expect more before the season is over.
I think it will work out to about 50 to 1 this year. The sap isn't as sweet as it was last year, but I'll know what the ratio is for sure when the boiling is done. Last year the ratio was about 40 to 1, and the sap was sweeter coming out of the tree. The firebox I built this year is working pretty good and I already have ideas for improvements for next year.
I'd like to have a special boiler pan made up for next year, preferably out of stainless, but I'll take carbon steel if the price for stainless should prove too high. Something about four feet long. 18 inches wide and about 8 inches deep, with handles and lifting holes or hooks. I thought about a tap for draining the sap but decided not go that route.
This boiler will fit onto a new fire setup I'm planning to build this year. Hopefully, when all is said and done, the new fire setup and boiler will make syrup making a lot easier.
That's all for now, have a good day.
Ken
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I found the link that you posted on the Victorian Farm series, and as a fellow Ontario resident and history buff, I'm definitely looking forward to more posts! Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteP.S. your home looks gorgeous!
Thank you ...where are you in Ontario
ReplyDeleteI have been boiling sap too, but not over the last 3 days as it's not been running up here. Hopefully tomorrow. But I have found my syrup tastes quite different from last year. And ratio is about 30:1.
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