First Batch

 Told you this was maple syrup on the cheap.  This is my "finishing" pot, the almost done sap goes into this pot where I can more closely monitor the temperature and the look of the sap.  What I'm looking for is 219º F; when it hits that temp it's done, at least as far as I'm concerned.  I also watch the bubbles, they get a glassy look to them.  I don't really know all that much about boiling the sap, but I do get some sugar in the bottom of the jars.  I don't really have a filtration system, I have a piece of felt that I pour the syrup thru, that's it.

This lobster cooker does the bulk of the boiling.  I just pour the sap in and let it run, and change out the tanks as needed.  I do it right in the garage.  Not much to it, really. All you have to do it find some maple trees, buy some taps and hang some milk jugs.  Then boil it off and watch the temperature.  Some people finish it in the house on the stove.  But don't boil it all down in the house--  The wall paper will fall off the walls!  A lot of sugar laden humidity all over everything!  You could use a BBQ grill, just keep it boiling.  I don't get too wound up about the boiling.  Just keep it going, and pull it when it hits 219º. 

 Here's Erinn, she helps me with the whole syrup project.  The sap has yet to really start running great, I get about 3 gallons a day, maybe not even that much.  It's still cold, and the sap doesn't start until 2-3 in the afternoon, and then it only runs for a couple hours.  A big sugar shack near here got about 3,500 gallons of sap ( not syrup) last week.  That sounds like a lot, but when the sap is running well,  they can get that in a day!
This weekend we're going to a sugar shack where they are having pancakes and beans, and of course syrup and taffy, can't wait!

And here's the first batch of syrup, a little darker than I would have expected for this early, but it tasted so good, it has a buttery taste, different than the store bought.  Just lighter and buttery, but I realize this is quite subjective. The output was good, this was about 12 gallons of sap for four and a half pints of syrup, which puts it at about 24 gallons to one, which is really good.  Later it'll run about 30 or 40 to one.   I shoot for about two gallons of syrup total;  I give a  few pints away and then we have enough to get thru the year.  Good fun, and not really that much work.   If you have a chance,  get out and go to a sugar shack the see a real evaporator operation in action, and try some of the taffy!