Outdoor boiling

As the outdoor pan from last year was worn down, we had a new boiling pan custom made for us this year by Accufab. There are many benefits that come with our new model boiling pan. The pan has a valve located on the bottom front edge that easily transports syrup from the pan into buckets. In this way, the transportation speed can be controlled for filtration purposes. Transferring sap to the buckets helps us to easily bring it over to our indoor boiling site. Also, the brand new pan helps to ensure our syrup comes out as clean and pure as possible.
In addition to the new boiling pan, we had a drip pan custom made for us as well. The drip pan has a couple of useful purposes. It is placed directly over the large boiling pan and held in place by two metal extensions. Since it takes a while for the large pan to reach boiling temperature, it slows down the boiling process to constantly add cold sap. By putting the cold sap into the drip pan BEFORE the large pan, the steam from the large pan preheats the cold sap so that when it drips into the large pan, it is at a warmer temperature that won't slow down the boil. Another benefit of the drip pan is that it provides a smaller and more workable destination for the sap to be filtered into.
We also improved outdoor boiling by remaking the fire pit. We realized that over the winter it had become uneven. Tyler dissembled the whole thing and then leveled it so now boiling will be more efficient.