A reader: I just started sugaring this year. I have looked at library and have a “maple mentor” but can’t seem to filter out the sand on the bottom on my own. One book from library said to make filter/cheesecloth hot with water before filtering and then filter/can. I did this with one batch and [...]

Last year we drove ourselves a little crazy by introducing a lot of new elements into the maple syrup operation. We introduced ourselves to filter presses (which take more sediment out of raw maple syrup), reverse osmosis (pre-concentrates sap before boiling), line vacuum (extracts more sap from trees), blowers (makes fire hotter) and pre-heaters (uses [...]

Sometimes customers decide to buy a large amount of syrup to pack into smaller containers. They might do this to make gifts to friends, or they might do this to create smaller sets of supply. That helps them keep their syrup fresh. This post will give some step-by-step directions for packing syrup to make it [...]