Maple Syrup Making Equipment

Want to save money making maple syrup? Hop over to this post if you’d like to know how we have cut our production costs in HALF in our little backyard operation. It’s pretty simple, and we explain all you need to know to do the same thing for yourself.

Want to know the supplies our family uses, here on our New England sugarbush, to make maple syrup every year? These affiliate links take you to products that I love. While I’ve purchased some off of Amazon, others I’ve found from wonderful, family-owned companies that I love. (See my full disclosure here.)

If you’re looking to upgrade & collect sap with tubing that runs from tree to tree, check out these details on using pumps to collect sap.

 

 

I show you how to use a refractometer in this video.

Propane Burners

If you plan on boiling your sap over propane, you may like this outdoor propane burner (we have two of these that we boil our sap in our large pot like this one). Or, if you want twice the cooking area, this propane burner is a great option (we have one of these as well, where we use two of these rectangular pans to boil our sap). Yes, it’s true, we keep increasing our number of taps every year, as well as how many pots we have boiling over the propane. We often have all 4 burners running, with 4 pans of sap boiling.

Reverse Osmosis Systems

We really need to build a sugar shack and buy a real evaporator some day, but for now, I’m thankful Bill built a DIY reverse osmosis (RO) filter, which cuts our propane costs in half.

 

I explain our RO filter–and Bill gives you full building directions–in this article.

 

I show you how our RO works in this video:

 

Collection Buckets

And, finally, one thing you may notice that’s missing from this list is buckets. That’s because, honestly, I’ve never found a good source for ordering these online. I assume it’s just too much of a pain for folks to ship, so no one carries them for a decent price. You can certainly buy buckets on Amazon, like these, and then there are these buckets too, but you can get buckets much more cost effectively at your local feed store.

Even better, you may be able to find food-grade, lidded buckets for free if you ask your local bakery or cheese factory. They often are overloaded with buckets and are happy to give them to enterprising sugarmakers.

Awesome Upgrades

If you want to up your game and rid yourself of the dreaded niter/filtering problem, I recommend the Complete Steam Bottler below. It allows you to filter, finish, and bottle all from the same unit. The steam tray helps prevent niter from re-appearing in your filtered syrup, which is a game changer!

I get great feedback from folks like you on the Smoky Lake evaporators listed here–they sell wonderful options for any size operation and for both wood-fired and gas-powered.

 

For Extra Fun

Every sugarmaker should have a few extra bonus items, for fun. To make maple popcorn, lots of delicious maple cakes and cookies baked in cast iron (like this maple blueberry cake or this giant maple candy cookie), and (one of my absolute favorite maple delicacies ever–drumroll, please…) maple cotton candy.

 

For Extra Deliciousness

If you’d like to sample lots of maple deliciousness, from maple cotton candy to single-serving maple syrup packets, you will love anything you order from this family-run sugarhouse right here. If you’re like me and you use maple syrup as your main sugar in the kitchen, you will especially love to hear that Tim’s XXL size maple syrup is one gallon of deliciousness at the best price I’ve seen anywhere. How sweet is THAT?

If you love Tim’s syrup and other maple goodies as much as I do, you’ll want to reorder. Stop back here anytime and just click the image below.–>

Or, to make it super easy for you, I link to Tim’s deliciousness right on my home page, just scroll right to the bottom right corner whenever you need to order some more maple amazingness. Tim and I would love it if you order through any link here my site, so we know that I sent you. 

Want to make maple sugar?

One of my favorite things to do with our syrup is turn it into maple sugar. Go here for our list of products we love for making maple sugar and check out my mini crash course that will have you making your own maple sugar like a pro in no time.

If you’d rather just buy your maple sugar, this is a great 3-pound container I recommend or you can’t go wrong with maple sugar–or ANY specialty item–you find over at my friends’ site, from maple sugar to maple cream, to delicious maple granola.