HOW TO MAKE & MARKET MAPLE SYRUP
(Page 6 of 15)
The sugarhouse itself is basically only a shelter from the
weather and needn't be elaborate. Ideally, it'll be large
enough to house the arch, a supply of firewood
and—during the offseason—all the buckets and
other equipment. A concrete floor is handy as it furnishes
a ready-made foundation for the evaporator.
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Don't forget to make provisions for the steam to escape!
Vents near the top of the building—such as the wide
cracks between the upper wall boards on our
sugarhouse—will let moist air out without allowing
cold gusts to blow across and cool the boiling
sap.
THE ARCH
The arch, or evaporator, is the stovelike structure which
supports the cooking pan and encloses the fire. Many
commercial producers use gas-fired arches nowadays, but we
have a lot of wood available and (after cooking on a wood
range) we feel that a wood-fired evaporator produces sap
with a superior flavor.
Prefabbed and assembled metal arches are widely used by
modern commercial maple syrup refiners but you can still
build a do-it-yourself arch out of any fireproof material
on hand: brick, stone, cement block, monolithic concrete
poured in forms or whatever. just remember that the top of
the arch should fit the pan exactly in order to avoid
unnecessary heat loss. Your evaporator is "efficient" if
the sugarhouse doesn't get very warm while you're boiling
sap. This means that all the heat is going where it's
supposed to!
The building we chose as our sugar shed had a brick chimney
which we rebuilt and attached our arch to. If you don't
have a chimney and aren't up to building one, a metal
stovepipe will do . . . if it's large (12 to 14 inches in
diameter), runs straight up with no elbows and has a
protective cap on top to keep out rain and birds.
Because of the wide variety of materials from which an
evaporator may be built, and because I'm not a skilled
stonemason, I won't attempt to give detailed instructions
for building an arch. Use your ingenuity, your library and
your friends to find out how to work with what you have.
When in doubt, stay simple.
Actually, the project isn't that difficult. Arthur, my
husband, had only a sketchy background in concrete work and
I had none at all when we began our arch
and—together—we built a fine, workable one.
Based on that experience, I feel qualified to offer the
following pointers:
(1) If your sugar shed doesn't have a concrete floor, begin
construction of the arch by pouring a concrete footing for
it.
(2) Be sure you get the right type of sand—with rough
and not "round" grains—when you mix your own cement.
If the proper sand—is not available, buy the more
expensive redi-mix concrete. When you're going to the
trouble of building an arch, you might as well use
materials that'll last.
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