Anyone sugaring?

[rodeosweetheart]

We came really close to buying spiles and buckets for the maple trees two days ago, but I chickened out thinking how could I cook it without trashing my stove--I bought a house once where someone use a basement kitchen to make maple syrup and it tooks lots of hard work to scrape the maple off of EVERYTHING and I threw out the stove.

But then we had to cut a limb yesterday that had grown over the roof and my goodness, that thing was dripping really fast, and still dripping when we came home six hours later.

So boy is the sap running.

Has anybody done this without having to build something special or buy a special cooking thing so as to avoid ruining the stove?

Crockpot or something?

One lady I met bought a turkey fryer but those are way too expensive and who wants a turkey fryer.

[Rogar]

I have helped a friend with a cottage syrup business in Vermont. Traditionally it was made in a large cauldron over an open fire. My friend found a huge old sugaring caldron to use over an open fire and is using it for show and tell this year. Probably a little much for home use, but there are kits online that might give you some ideas for doing it outside using propane or wood. I don't know if a crockpot would hold enough or get hot enough for a good boil? I'd think that any larger food grade old pot like maybe a canning pot over a Coleman stove or maybe an open fire would work, but it might take some imagination. You have to figure that if you want to make a quart, it's going to take something like 10 gallons of sap. One secret my friend uses is to add a touch of butter to the boil, which creates a layer of surface oil that helps prevent a boil over.

[rodeosweetheart]

Thank you, Roger, maybe outside open fire, although this certainly sounds iinvolved. The butter is a great tip.
10gallons of sap to make a quart. Wowee. It would certainly be cheaper to buy it, lol.