At the end of the reverse osmosis process, the saps’ sugar content is 19 percent. The job of the evaporator, which is essentially a big frying pan, is to keep boiling it down. Our Tornado Natural Gas evaporator fills up nearly half of our 12,000-square foot sugarhouse, enabling us to boil more sap at a time, resulting in a fresher end product. When the sugar content reaches 66.9 percent, then we’ve made maple syrup.

Next: To the filtering room…