When enough sap has been collected, we begin the boiling process. Generally boiling starts in the morning and runs into the late evening and will take place as many times as needed to boil the sap inot syrup. The boiling takes place in a stainless steel flat pan with a set of dividers and gates to control sap at different stages of cooking. The pan is heated by burning wood as shown in the first picture. To make the large amount of required wood available, some time must be spent in the fall splitting logs in preparation for the spring boiling. A large amount of steam is produced in the cooking process and provides the room with a sweet maple smell. You can see some of the steam in the second picture. Note that there are two parts to the boiling system. The sap is preheated in the section of the cooker to the left which has a sand bed below it to retain heat from the fire in the firebox to the right. After it is warm it flows into the part of the pan over the firebox. The amount of sap being preheated is automatically regulated using a float valve. Sap is periodically pumped from the holding tank outside into a head tank in the sugar house, then as needed the float valve releases the sap by gravity in to the boiler.

When the sap has had enough water removed to be considered syrup (this is determined by the density of the sap as shown by a floating indicator) it is removed from the boiler into stainless steel buckets by way of a valve on the side of the boiler.