“It’s what you have to do to evaporate 150 gallons of sap before (during) Easter to get 5 gallons of dark sweet syrup,” my husband said when he came home after a week of traveling and 12 hour work days. “We have to sap tonight.”
I’m the cry-baby when it comes to cold weather and working late nights, but I behaved and spent time admiring the blood moon and husband’s work ethic. More syrup in my coffee! Hurray!
Middlemay Farm 
Looks like a good design. How many gallons per hour could you boil with it?
Thanks. Bob
Theoretically we should be able to get 10, but usually it’s about 8 gallons an hour. We’re still tinkering. 🙂
From the picture it seems you have about 1 4′ chimney….try increasing its length to about 10″ (for better draft) due you use a blower? Mine i not to much different and I am hoping between 16-20 gph next year. Fire bricks and a blower should increase u almost double.
Thanks for the info! I will pass it along to my husband. 🙂 We used a little mattress blower just because we had it lying around, but my husband is planning something different for next year. What sort of blower do you have?
Just used and in`line duct blower going into bottom of arch (abovr coal grate) then use a damper in a taller 8″ chimney. I had a setup similar to yours but found it hard to keep the far end of the pan hot. Changer the shape of my barrel to be more like an inverted P. This allows hot gases to be drawn past pan and up chimney. The damper can be used to regulate the amount of heat going up chimney and in eturn keep more heat inside to heat pans.
Love the ideas and hard work!
Hi Ellen,
Yes, my husband has a pioneer’s soul. 🙂