I am maxed out on politics for the moment
--even though I am still glued to MSNBC and CNN. So I want to share with you another of my great food and friend finds--similarly to Peterson's Fish Market in the Keewenah that I wrote about this past summer. And I want you to meet David Kopp--rock and roller, small philanthropist, Mr Maple to students and lecture attendees at Cornell, happy grand-pap, long time husband, and my once a year telephone pal.
David who runs Patrick Hill Maple Farms in Upstate New York has supplied me with the best most scrumptious, least expensive real maple syrup for over a decade.
It is my one real extravagance. I pay about $50 for a gallon of grade B syrup (in two 1/2 gallon jugs). Once opened, I store one 1/2 gal in the fridge. The other sits on my pantry shelf.
I use about a gal a year. I think store prices run you about $6-$8.00 for 6 oz. So you can see what a savings I am getting.
And it is so delicious. Maple syrup is one true American food and its production--both by the trees and the syrup maker cannot be outsourced or rushed. Sugar maples are native to North America making maple syrup at home. Grade B is great for cooking and it also has less of an impact on blood sugar--fewer spikes. Making maple syrup is a slow process and takes a lot of fuel.
Recently I placed my annual order--laying in my supply and thinking about luscious pancakes that I make from non-gluten flours, all topped with Dave's maple syrup.
We got to chatting about environmental issues and
Dave began describing a phenomenal method he uses to boil the maple sap down to maple syrup.
For those of you who don't know, the ratio is 40 to 1. Forty gallons of sap to one gallon of syrup. That's why sugar houses are mostly out in the woods in the middle of the sugar bush (a grove of maple trees)--so all that steam can boil off during the sugaring.
I've never been to Dave's sugar house--in fact we've never met in person, but I did go to a sugar house once in the Catskills and it was magical. I'll describe that experience another time. What I want to share today is Dave's method of boiling the sap down to syrup. Traditionally, wood was used to heat the huge flat pans in which the sap boils down to syrup. But Dave uses another and amazing system.
I asked him to write up his method, which he says other people are using as well and some for home heating!! Here are two sites I randomly pulled off the web: Commerical burners, a second site just google waste fuel burners. I was wowed at the idea of heating with used motor oil, used cooking oils and other waste liquid fuels.
Below is David Kopp's description of Burning liquid waste fuel to make maple syrup:
Using waste fuels such as used motor oil, paint thinner, brake fluid, oil, really any liquid waste that will burn, can be used simply and cheaply to produce high power heat.
I use an old 3 phase electric driven ray burner which spins the dirty fuel into a cone in the fire box of a 5 x 14 maple evaporator. To adapt the unit to single phase electric, I cut a hole in the 3 phase motor housing removed the windings and welded a pulley on the drive shaft of the fan.
Next I mounted a small single phase electric motor, belt drive.
I pump the window screen filtered fuel thru a ½ inch pipe with a small gear pump from an outside tank into the building to the burner and then back to the tank. This makes a continuous circulation of fuel. In this feed line next to the burner I installed a tee with a valve between the tee and burner and a valve between the tee and return line. Now I can regulate pressure and amount of fuel to the burner.
The fuel travels thru a tube down the center of the fan drive shaft, dumping out of a ¼ inch hole into the fire chamber. The high volume of directed air from the fan now spins the fuel into a cone. A hand held propane torch lights the fuel cone. A perfect burn (no smoke) is achieved by adjusting back pressure valve in return line and burner feed valve while looking at the fire thru a large peep hole.
A firewall about 3 ft in front of the burner catches about 2/3 of the burning cone and rolls the flames back so the fire is maintained as long as fuel is blown in. This keeps all the bricks in the chamber hot, so you can pass a reasonable amount of water or anti freeze without putting the fire out. Total cost of this installation not including labor $300. Any questions David Kopp 1-800-62-maple
Imagine adapting such a system to home heating--all that noxious polluting waste liquid fuels just waiting to keep you toasty in the winter.
Who knew that my delicious organic maple syrup was made by left over dirty motor oil!
And considering that OPEC has just cut production again link to Mother Earth Story
got to do something and fast.
The Minerals Management Service of the Department of the Interior http://www.mms.gov/, and who the heck ever heard of that??!? is now proposing to offer for lease 73,000,000 acres of Arctic waters for gas and oil drilling. Didn't we just go through a whole thing with the potential damage to the fragile Artic in the last administration? So what gives? 
Remember Scrooge from The Christmas Carol in his nightcap? Well nightcaps are really warm. Humans lose a lot of heat from uncovered heads. 
It reduces heat loss greatly and feels very cozy.
