Boiling Maple Syrup on a Converted Oil Drum

     Maple syrup season is soon approaching, so it's time to begin preparing for next month's running sap. I'm hoping to increase the amount of syrup I produce and decrease the amount of wood fuel I use this year. Since maple syrup is local, sustainable, and so delicious, it's quickly become my family's favorite sweetener. The amount of syrup I boiled down last year supplied us through October. Ideally, I'd love to produce enough to make it through the entire year.

     Last season, I burnt all the brush I collected from my property, much of our accumulated kindling, and even some of our fire wood.  This year, I decided to begin preparation early: in the fall, I collected brush from around the property and stacked it near the boiling area.  I also asked a friend in construction to direct scrap lumber my way, instead of disposing it in the construction dumpster. He's religiously dropped off weekly loads of scrap wood that I've cut to length and stacked in my woodshed. The piles are mounting as maple season closes in, so I'm hoping that I can avoid pulling heating wood from our stack, and use only wood that would otherwise be discarded.  

     We've convert a recycled oil drum into an outdoor wood stove with parts ordered from Northern Hydraulics, to burn wood more efficiently than last year's open pit.  

#16160 Barrell Stove Kit & #161609 Stove Damper Flu
from Northern Hydraulics

#172905 Hot Plate for Barrel Set with Lid
 from Northern Hydraulics

     I'm hopeful that the closed fire will allow me to boil down more syrup.  I'm also anticipating that by pulling the ash away from the pot through the stove pipe, less ash will need to be filtered out of the syrup.
     I'm watching the weather predictions; waiting for the days' temperatures to rise above freezing while the nights' temperatures return to below freezing, forcing the sap to flow, so I can try out my new stove.

See previous posts on making maple syrup.