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Anyone doing maple syrup this year? The season is in right now. I started early this year in January because the weather has been mild (freezing at night and above freezing and sunny during the day). From 6 smallish trees I've been getting about 5-6 gallons of sap each fair weather day total. Just over the weekend, I rendered down sap and got a little over 2 pints of finished syrup.
I bought four 20 3/4" x 12 3/4" x 4" stainless steel steam table pans from a restaurant supplier to boil the sap down into maple syrup. They are thin, so I took the iron plates off my wood stoves and put those on each burner on the stovetop. Then the steam table pans with the sap goes on the iron plates. I can set the fire to semi-low and it'll simmer and steam all day and night until it is ready to become syrup.
Since I heat with gas and the stove is gas, I'm not spending extra money on rendering the sap down. All that heat stays in the house and the furnace runs less. I already have homebrewing equipment so my only cost has been the 4 SS pans. The amount of syrup I've made with them is worth more than their cost. So, I'm ahead by quite a lot now
Here's an older pic, I posted it previously. I need to take more pics.
