My Old Evaporator - a photo on Flickriver

My Old Evaporator

            This is the stove base of the maple syrup evaporator my grandfather bought for me around 1985 or '86.

The base is constructed from a 55 gallon barrel that's been flared at the top to hold a pan. There's a hinged door with a simple damper for loading firewood, and it stands on simple bent metal legs. I've seen similar homemade designs. I'd burn mostly pine to get a fast-burning, hot fire under the pan.

It was made in Vermont by a local company (now defunct) called Ascutney Forge. I used it for a number of seasons, and it was pretty rusty after years in storage - not to mention years of hot fires and the water I'd dump inside to put out the fire at the end of the day!

I recovered it back in January from the now dilapidated shed back in NH where I ran it in the late 80s through the mid-90s when I moved out on my own. I had around 30 taps back then, and made a few gallons of syrup each season. 

I've been slowly restoring it, using lots of sanding and about 6 cans of Rustoleum paint and clear acrylic. The next project is cleaning up the boiling pan and warming tank that sit on top. Those are made of galvanized steel but they're dingy from soot and disuse.

I'm not sure what I'll do with sugaring equipment in TN, where it's almost totally impractical. There a few tiny sugaring operations around, but this really isn't the right climate for sugaring. We're too far South. There are a few sugar maples on our property, but probably not enough to bother with trying. One ridiculous idea I'm considering is keeping it in my small home office. :)

Taken on: November 12, 2023

Tags:

evaporator

maple sugaring

sentimental

black and white

bwfp

Tennessee

Asutney Forge

Made in Vermont

Konica FS-1

Hexanon 50mm f/1.4

#FP4Party « less

Sets appears in: • Oak Ridge • Misc 35mm more » • New England « less

Groups appears in: • I Shoot Film • Black and White Film more » • Konica Cameras • Film Photography Podcast « less

Camera: Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Exposure Software Exposure X7
Show full info

Stats: 1,280 views / 5 comments

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder