Eleven Years: Could there still be excitement?

We have been maple sugarmakers for 11 years. The process is straight forward; simple. You boil sap into syrup. First in a big pan outside; then when the volume is reduced from over 50 gallons to about one, finish it in a smaller big pan inside.

Yesterday started at 7:30 AM, later than usual. At 7 PM all the sap had been cooked down and what was in the outside pan poured through the wool filter. The flow was very slow. I thought we might need a new filter, but why? I'd look into that later.

Then setting the finishing pan on the kitchen stove I went outside to clean the pan. A minute later I smell burning sugar!!!!

There was a syrup geyser pouring over the pan creating a sea of syrup on and in my stove! First time ever I boiled over. But how could this be unless the syrup is finished, ie already thick enough? I test it; and sure enough, it was. We processed a large enough volume of sap that the syrup finished during the initial boil. The first time this has happened in 11 years.

The collected product total: 5 and 1/2 quarts. Not including the sea....