Oh yeah, baby, we're making maple syrup!

March 29, 2020 - Sunday morning

37 degrees/rain/calm winds

Pentoga Road

It's been raining hard all night and I hate to see what daylight will bring. It was muddy and sloppy before the rain. What's today going to look like?

I was in the shop shortly after 4 AM Saturday morning. With the storage barrels full to overflowing, it was imperative that the evaporator be finished so boiling could begin.

Sargie and I had completed the "bones" of the boiler, but knowing how to install the insides remained elusive. With a very slow daytime internet speed and instructions totally online, my only choice was to start work very early while bandwidth was at its optimum.

Sheets of ceramic cloth covered the bare metal chamber. Fire bricks then cover the ceramic to protect it from the extreme heat.

 With the burning chamber and firebricks installed, we placed the divided stainless steel pan on top and rolled the boiler outside. Next came setting up the flue.

Almost twenty gallons of raw sap was added to the boiling pan. I filled the burning chamber with dried wood of every kind, splashed on a bit of fuel oil, and lit the match. We were in business.

It seemed to take forever for the initial batch to begin boiling. 

The pan on top is an old one used as a warming pan. It preheats the sap so the boil isn't killed when its contents are added.

When the sap began to boil, it really rolled.

Between sixty and eighty gallons of sap were boiled yesterday afternoon, enough to make a gallon and a half to two gallons of syrup. Draw off will be coming soon today and we'll begin canning in quart jars sometime this afternoon. 

We could have begun drawing off at some point last evening, but both Sargie and I were simply too tired. This past week has seen us working harder than two retired people should ever have to work and with rain pouring down, we decided to enjoy an early evening by the wood stove.

I wonder if people have any idea of the work involved in producing just one gallon of maple syrup? Sometimes, I think a person has to be a complete idiot for going through this whole process of tapping, collecting, boiling, and canning.

It's almost daylight and this idiot will soon be heading outside to fire up the boiler. Starting a good hot fire will be a challenge due to the dampness, but thankfully, I have a stash of old fire wood that's high and dry in the red shed. All my wood is under cover, but the air is so wet it can be wrung out like a wet washrag. 

With this recent heavy rain, I have no idea how long the maple season will last. If conditions are too bad in the woods for either the snowmobile or four wheeler to be used for gathering, we'll pull the taps sooner rather than later. If one or the other can be used, we'll tap for another week. 

Our goal for this year has been to produce somewhere in the five gallon range. We should have that much sap already sitting in the barrels. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake.

It must be spring.
Two snow geese flying overhead.

I've stalled as long as I can. Time to put on the boots, wade out into the mud, walk through the rain, and get a fire started.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...