Duffys Lane Maple Syrup and Honey

Duffy's Lane Maple and Honey
by
Jen and Brent Roberts
15271 Duffy's Lane, Caledon, Ontario

Our syrup making equipment.

Here is our new maple syrup evaporator viewed from the right side

This is a picture of our new evaporator.
This view shows the float boxes on the right side. These control the level of the sap in rear pan and the transfer of sap from the rear pan to the front syrup pan. It is not easy to tell what is what because everything on a new evaporator is shiny stainless and becomes a mirror. This rig is about 7 feet long ( 213cm)

	The next 4 pictures are of a new pipeline system we installed in February ( brrrrr ) of 2009. Click on any picture to see a larger view that makes it a bit easier to see the pipeline as it winds off into the maples. We have about 160 trees connected. The pipeline is over 1 km long. In the picture to the left you can see the 1000 Litre central collection tank. Under the green tarp is a generator to power a vacuum pump. With about 20 to 22" of vacuum the system will roughly double the amount of sap collected compared to a bucket system. The sap is virtually clear and collection is a lot easier in the heart of this bush Our thanks to our neighbours Christine and Larry Scott of allowing us to tap their bush.
	This view is to the south taken from near the tank, which is located at the lowest point, so all the views are slightly uphill.
	This view is the north east.
	and this view is to the north.
	This is the Gator as used in our 3rd season 12 water cooler jugs for the sap. The first 2 years we carried the jugs. One in each hand and one in a backpack. ... all the way from the woods in the distance.
	Boiling on the back deck. This was the 3rd step. The first year we boiled in the kitchen. The second year we boiled on a turkey frier on the deck. This is a Leader Half Pint evaporator we used in '06 and '07. It had a flat bottom and was not very efficient. The second season with this we added a blower to force more air in under the grate. It made a hotter fire and just about doubled the firewood consumption. Very inefficient. There are studies done by the University of Vermont on evaporator efficiency and they show that only 20% of the air should go in the bottom and up through the grates. The other 80% should be injected with blowers well above the flames, pointing down. This is pretty much the way modern wood stoves work.

	This picture shows our new evaporator in full boil. The smaller front pan, called the syrup pan, is open and you can see the huge amount of steam. It has dividers like a maze so the syrup flows through, gradually increasing in density and boiling temperature when it is drawn off. The rear pan is fully enclosed with inspection ports on each side. This is where the heavy duty boiling is done. The roof of the sugar shack has 3 stacks, 2 for steam and the smoke stack.

	This was my wife's kitchen. So.... the syrup gets put into the white drums according to batches and colour grades. Behind the drum is the filter, also shown in the next picture down. This filter removes the sediment from the evaporator. It is much like the lime you get in a kettle. From the filter the syrup is pumped to the tank on the stove were we re-heat it to 185 degrees. We then re-filter and pump it to the "canner" which is a large water jacketed tank, like a double boiler, where the syrup is held at 185 degrees until it is put in the bottles. A few maple leaf bottles are on the filling table of the canner.
	Here is our new machine for filtering maple syrup. Part of the natural process of boiling the syrup causes some calcium to perciptiate out in a very fine granular state. To remvove this filtering on a device to capture 1 micron particles is necessary to remove it, otherwise it will settle out when bottled.

The above pictures are a new (to us) sap extractor. A vacuum pump will extract air from the top. The pipeline system from the trees will connect to one of the ports about a foot below the top. A "sapsucker" style peristaltic pump will connect to the lowest port, visible in the left picture. The vacuum pump runs continuously while the sap is running. The sapsucker pump will be switched on and off by a float switch in the tank. It has its own strong suction to extract the sap out the bottom and pump it to the holding tank.
	The newest addition to our equipment, to be put to work in 2010, an Airablo Reverse Osmosis system. This one is made in Quebec specifically for processing maple sap. This should remove about 75% of the water from the sap before we start boiling and will be much much faster than the system we used the last 2 years. Hopefully on days with big sap flows we will find our beds and midnight instead of 2:30AM
Brix / Temperature Correction Chart as Excel sheet Brix / Temperature Correction Chart as pdf