Step By Step Aquaponics Backyard

Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (soil-less plant culture). Aquaponics is the ideal answer to a fish farmer’s problem of disposing of nutrient rich water and a hydroponic grower’s need for nutrient rich water. Essentially, aquaponics mimics every natural waterway on earth. It is used to grow food crops in a concentrated, yet sustainable manner.

Step By Step Aquaponics Backyard

As aquaponic technology continues to develop, there are two primary methods that have evolved. The media-filled bed system, which many backyard enthusiasts use, and the raft system, which most commercial growers use. NFT (nutrient film technique) is a third, less popular method of aquaponics.
In a raft system (also known as float, deep channel and deep flow) the plants are grown in floating Polystyrene boards that float on top of water while a media-filled bed system uses a tank or container that is filled with gravel, perlite or another media for the plant bed.
While algae, submerged plants, and floating plants do a good job of removing fish wastes from a recirculating aquaculture system, so can lettuce, basil, or many other common vegetables and herbs. Fish wastes can be treated with a bio-filter and then allowed to pass through hydroponic troughs, where the roots of cultivated plants can remove the wastes as fertilizer.
In this system, fish are fed in the fish tank. Their wastes are pumped with an airlift pump into a biofilter pipe. This pipe is a smaller version of the biofilter tank used in the recirculating system. As waste-filled water seeps through the biofilter pipe, bacteria and other micro- organisms breakdown and convert the wastes into forms that plants can use as fertilizer.
At the end of the biofilter pipe, the water spills out through an irrigation bar which distributes the fertilizer- filled water into the two hydroponic troughs. As the water slowly flows along the bottom of the hydroponic troughs, plants in pots draw water and nutrients from the passing flow.
Small plants and seedlings are watered through the wicking action of wicking materials in the bottom of their pots. Larger plants grow roots out of the bottom of their pots and into tile flow, soaking tip lots of water and fertilizer.
After passing through the biofilter pipe and the hydroponic troughs, the cleaned water trickles back into the fish tank, where the cycle starts once again.
This article shows you how to build a simple aquaponic system that will produce both fish and vegetables. Like the simple recirculating system, it runs off of one double-outlet air pump. This design takes up a four foot by nine foot space but can be made smaller if space is limited.

SITE

This system needs more light than the simple recirculating system, because vegetable crops tend to need more light than water plants. A greenhouse, bright south-facing window, or protected outdoor location is best.
If, you want to put it inside, you’ll need to use lights to grow your plants.
This system weighs less than the simple recirculating system, but you should get an engineer to look at any floor you think may not be strong enough. There are no through-hull fittings in this system, and as long as the hydroponic tray is higher than the fish tank it can be put just about anywhere. For example, you could put the hydroponic tray on top of an old table with the fish tank on the floor at one end.

PARTS AND TOOLS NEEDED

Hardware

1- 50 gallon plastic barrel – preferably food grade and semi-transparent
1 – 10? long 1/2? PVC pipe
1 – 1/2? PVC male adapter

2 - 1/2? PVC tee fittings
1 – 10? long 4? PVC pipe
1 – 4? end cap
1 – 4? “L” fitting

1 – aquarium air pump with double outlet
2 – air stones
10? of air stone tubing
1 – 4? x 8? board, 1/4? or thicker
3 – 1? x 4? boards, 8? long
2 – 1 ” x 2? boards, 8? long
50 – 1? nails
White or carpenter’s glue for bonding the boards together
1 – 6? by 10? piece of polyethylene vapor barrier (6mil is best). This is simply a thick plastic sheet used to protect houses from moisture and can be found in most hardware stores.
Staples for staple gun (if using)
5 gallons of oyster shells or dolomite
Plastic pots for plants
Bag of potting soil
Bag of perlite, vermiculite, cocofiber, or peat moss

Tools

Saw – to remove tops of barrels, cut boards and cut pipe
Hammer
Staple gun (optional – see STEP 9)
Felt pen – to mark cuts
Power drill
3/4? hole saw (or large bore drill bit)
Scissors – to cut plastic

Biological Materials

Buckets of water from local lakes, rivers or ponds
A handful of fresh compost
A handful of good garden soil
A handful of soil from a forest
A handful of soil from a meadow
Some snails from an aquarium store or local pond
Vegetable and herb seeds and seedlings
20 – 30 fish fingerlings (Nile tilapia are recommended)

CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE

This system takes a day to build if you can get all the materials together and wash and leach the barrels beforehand.
It is a good idea to add the plants a week or so before adding the fish, so that their roots can grow into the water. Add the fish after the system has stabilized for a week or two. Be sure to read ALL the Instructions CAREFULLY before starting to build so that you won’t be surprised by what comes next.

STEP 1. Rinsing the barrel.

Rinse out the barrel with a garden hose. Barrels often contain nasty toxins and should always be handled with care. Wear gloves, long sleeved shirts, long pants, and safety glasses when rinsing.

STEP 2. Leaching the barrel.

The barrel can be leached by filling with water, letting it sit overnight, and then draining the next day. Do this several times, using hot water if available. This will draw out any toxins that are in the plastic itself.

STEP 3. Cutting the lid out of the barrel.

Cut the lid out of the barrel as shown. Leave the rim intact, as it provides support for the barrel, and be sure to leave a small flap to hold the airlift pump. There are several ways of cutting the lid out, depending on what tools you have available. For example, you could drill a small hole and then use a skill saw, or you can drill holes all the way around if you don’t have a saw.

STEP 4. Washing the barrel.

Wash the barrel. Use soap, warm water, and a scrub brush or sponge. Or take the barrel to a commercial car wash. Rinse off the soap, re-fill, and let the barrel leach overnight again.

STEP 5. Making the hydroponic trough.

The hydroponic trough is basically a box lined with plastic. A plan for a four by eight-foot double trough is  shown. You can make the trough longer, shorter, narrower, or wider, if you wish. The important thing is that the drains are spaced so that they drain directly into the fish tank, and that there is a space to hold the biofilter pipe.
Cut one of the 1?x4? boards into a 46 1/2 ” piece and two 16? pieces. Glue and nail the other two 8? long 1? x 4? boards onto the long sides of the 4? x 8? board. Glue and nail the 461/2? piece onto one end of the 4? x 8? board, and glue and nail the 16? pieces to the other end as shown.
Find the center of the 4? x 8? board at-id mark it with a pencil. Mark a line 2 1/4? from the center line on both sides of the center line. Glue and nail the two 1 x 2? boards so that their inside edge runs along the 2 1/4? lines. You should end up with a 4 1/2-” wide trench in between the two 1? x 2? boards, where the biofilter pipe will sit.
Using sandpaper, go over the inside of your trough carefully, looking for sharp edges and splinters that might poke through the plastic. Also look to see if any nails have come through that might tear the plastic.

STEP 6. Building the irrigation bar.

Drill a 1/4? hole through the 4? endcap, as shown. Be very careful to drill this hole straight or else the joint will leak. Use the caulking gun to cover the threads of a 1/2? male adapter with silicon sealant. Using a wrench, carefully screw the adapter into the 3/4? hole. Be sure that it goes in straight. You should be able to screw it until it is flush with the surface of the end cap.
Cut two pieces Of 1/2? pipe 1 foot long. Cut one piece 1 inch long. Clean the cut edges with sandpaper and then push the pipe together as shown.

STEP 7. Building the biofilter pipe.

If your trough is eight feet long, then cut your 4? pipe to be nine feet long (i.e. cut one foot off the end). The pipe should be 1 foot longer than the trough. Being careful not to bump the newly attached irrigation bar, twist the end cap onto one end of the 4? pipe.
Carefully rinse the oyster shells or dolomite. The smallest pieces should be no smaller than ‘/4? diameter, to prevent the biofilter from getting too clogged. Scoop the oyster shells or dolomite into the biofilter pipe until it is 90% full. Attach the 4? “L” fitting and set the biofilter pipe aside.

STEP 8. Assembling the system.

The system needs to sit on top of something. Pallets, saw-horses, or concrete blocks could Al be used to support the hydroponic troughs off of the ground. The end of the hydroponic troughs nearest to the barrel should be just slightly higher than the lip of the barrel, and the far end an inch or so higher than that. The lip of the barrel should be about 36?, so you need to find supports that will hold the troughs 36? to 38? off the ground.
Once you have set up supports for the troughs, set the trough onto them and secure with nails. If you are using cement blocks as a support, you may need to use rope or cord to hold the troughs ‘in place.
Place the barrel under the draining end of the troughs. It should just barely fit beneath the troughs, and the two drains should hang well over the open top.

STEP 9. Lining the troughs

Check for sharp or rough edges in the troughs one last time. Lay the plastic over the hydroponic trough and begin fitting it into the troughs. Be sure to allow enough slack in the corners so that the plastic won’t have to stretch when you put plants on top of it. The central trough, where the biofilter pipe will lie, is lined ‘in case of overflows or blockages in the pipe. If the pipe overflows or breaks, the water will simply flow back into the fish tank.
Once the plastic has been fitted, secure it by using a staple gun, home- made pipe-clips’ or binder clips from an office supply store. Although harder to make and use, ‘pipe-clips’ will last longer because they won’t rust.

STEP 10. Placing the biofilter pipe.

Carefully lay the biofilter pipe into the central trough, being careful not to tear the plastic or break the irrigation bar.
Water flows through the biofilter pipe because the entrance to the pipe is higher than the exit. You can adjust the maximum height of water in the biofilter by twisting the “L” fitting at the entrance. Ideally, the biofilter should be mostly full of water, with a thin layer of air at the top.

STEP 11. Setting up the air-lift pump.

Cut a piece of 1/2? pipe 30? long. Drill a 3/4? hole in the middle of the flap that is leftover from the barrel lid and insert the 1/2? piece through it. You will probably have to widen the hole a little bit with a knife. Push the 1/2? tee fitting onto the 30? pipe so that one hole sticks straight up and the other is sideways.
Measure the horizontal distance from the tee fitting to the middle of the 4? “L” fitting on the end of the biofilter. The idea is to raise the water up the 30? long pipe, and across to the biofilter. Cut a piece of pipe to span the distance between the 30? long pipe and the b1ofilter and push it into the tee fitting. Cut another 6? long piece of 1/2? pipe and push it into the top of the tee fitting.
Cut two 5? long pieces of air tubing and hook them up to the outlets of the air pump. Attach an air stone to one of them. Remove the air-lift pipe and drill a ?” hole 4? from the bottom of the pipe. Insert the air tube without any airstone into the hole. You may have to fold it to get it in. Attach a rock to the to the airstone end of the other air tube and let it rest near the bottom of the tank. This will provide extra oxygen to the fish.
Begin filling the tank with water and turn on the air pump. As the tank becomes full, you will see the amount of water the air-lift pumps increase. When the tank is full, the air-lift should be pumping a reasonable amount of water into the biofilter, the b1ofilter should fill with water, the irrigation bar will drain into the hydroponic troughs, and the troughs should drain back into the fish tank. Check for leaks, add more water if necessary, and let the system run for 24 hours so that it can leach. After 24 hours, drain the system, refill, and let run for another 24 hours before Inoculating.

STEP 12. Inoculation.

Inoculate the tanks with biological materials. Sprinkle the handful of compost and soils into the entrance of the b1ofilter. Add the pond/ stream/river water directly to the fish tank, and add a few snails as well. Two or three tablespoons of rotten milk can be added to the b1ofilter tank to encourage a healthy microbial community.

STEP 13. Adding the plants.

Half fill the plant pots with peat, cocofibre, vermiculite, or perlite. This layer will wick water up to the plants until their roots grow out of the bottom of the pots. Fill the remaining half of the pots with compost or good potting soil. Plant seeds or seedlings in the pot and arrange them in the troughs. You should try to place them so that the bottom of the pot touches the water flowing through the trough. Water them well with water from the fish tank once you have put them in the place you want them. Watering them will start the wicking action.
You should make sure that the plants you are growing have enough light and the right temperature. Consult a good hydroponic or gardening book to get this information.

STEP 14. Preparing the system for fish.

You should let the system run without fish for a few days, so the various micro-organisms have time to stabilize and the plants day or two for the water to warm have time to sprout or compensate for transplant shock. This waiting period is also a good idea as it will allow any residual chlorine in the water to escape into the atmosphere. If you are planning on keeping fish that require high temperatures, you will have to install a submersible heater in the system or put the system in a hot place such as a heated greenhouse. Because the system contains a lot of water, it will take a day or two to warm up to the desired temperature.

STEP 15. Adding the fish.

You have to introduce the fish fingerlings slowly to prevent them from being too stressed. If the fish came in a bag, open the top to allow oxygen to enter. Float the bag in the fish tank for an hour or so to allow the water inside the bag to come to the same temperature as the tank. You can hang the open bag from the b1ofilter pipe or the airlift pump so that the fish don’t swim out. Once the temperature is the same, add a little bit of water from the fish tank into the bag. Five minutes later, add a little bit more. Do this a few more times, then slowly tilt the bag underwater so that the fish can swim out of the bag and Into the tank.
Fish that are delivered in other types of containers should be handled the same way.

STEP 16. The first few days.

It is a good idea to cover the tank after first introducing the fish because sometimes fish will try to escape from a new tank. After a few days, the fish will become accustomed to their new tank and a cover will no longer be necessary.
When fish are first moved, they may not be as hungry due to stress. Feed them only a little bit at first, gradually increasing the amount of food as they become accustomed to their new environment.
If all your fish die in the first few days, then something is wrong with your system, with the fish or something happened during transit. Call the person you got your fish from and try to figure out what the problem could be. Usually, you can get replacement fish at a discount if you can convince the fish supplier that there was something wrong at their end.

MAINTENANCE

Regular maintenance helps keep a system healthy by spotting small problems before they become big problems. The regular tasks that you need to perform are listed according to how frequently they need to be done.

Daily Tasks

1. Feed the fish. You can feed fish until they stop eating, or feed them a set amount. Calculating the exact amount of feed to provide is quite complicated, so I suggest feeding them until they stop eating on a daily basis. It is important to watch your fish eat. If they aren’t eating happily then there may be something Wrong.
2. Check that the water level in the fish tank is high enough so that the airlift pump is operating efficiently.
3. Look at the fish to see if they seem healthy.
4. Look at your plants to see if they are happy. Check for insect pests, diseases, and nutrient problems.

Weekly Tasks

1. Harvest plant materials and eat. Feed scraps to the fish or put into a compost pile.
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Aquaponics 400 liter barrelponics

This is a 400 liter barrel ponics that i built with two 200 liter barrels interconnected for the fish tank and 2 barrels cut in half to form the 4 growbeds. For the sump tank i used a 300 liter loft tank.
The system was set up some time ago. The build was simple with 40 mm square section of treated pine that was put together with a clever load bearing design the barrels sat comfortably on the frames.


The fish tank was placed strategically under the overhead tanks of the house to avoid direct sunlight and this gives the FT plenty of insulation from the elements.
Bell siphon was put in place and the plumbing was done using 19 mm cpvp pipes with control valves at every water exit point.
Once the system was all hooked up we ran the system for about 3 days for all the dust etc get settled down at the bottom of the growbed and for the water to get cleared.

3 days later I introduces 10 gold fish. This is very less number of fish for this size tank, but this was done because I was looking at cycling this system with fish.

Then I ran the system for a week and added a another round of 10 gold fish. By now a few seeds was also thrown into the growbeds. It took almost 6 weeks for the nitrogen cycle to get established. During this time a few tweaks was done to the bell siphion upstand to get the flood and drain cycle to set well. 8 weeks later the system was running fine and in three months time the system was well set and the tomato plant were already starting to fruit.

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Father John Dear to Discuss his New Book on Thomas Merton

Father John Dear has gained a reputation in New Mexico and around the country for his opposition of war and his staunch support of disarmament and peacemaking efforts. Dears philosophy is evident in the books he has published, including A Persisent Peace, The Nonviolent Life, Disarming the Heart: Toward a Vow of Nonviolence, and Put Down Your Sword.

Dear has also written books or introductions to books about important people who share his philosophy: Daniel Berrigan, Mohandas Gandhi, Henri Nouwen and others.  He recently published Thomas Merton: Peacemaker, which will be the subject of his talk on Thursday, January 21, at Bookworks (4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW (map), a small independent bookstore in Albuquerques North Valley, at 7:00 pm.

Heres is how Bookworks is promoting the event on its website:
A noted peacemaker reflects on Thomas Mertons lessons for peacemaking today. In this centenary year of Thomas Mertons birth, longtime peace activist and author John Dear shares meditations on Mertons writings on peace and spiritual life. "The God of peace is never glorified by human violence," Merton wrote.

In the early 1960s, the famous Trappist monk, author, and poet broke new ground through his prophetic writings on nuclear weapons, war, and racism. For Merton these were not only moral challenges. They reflected a deeper spiritual crisis.

Among the lessons John Dear has learned from Merton: the connection between contemplation and nonviolence; the importance of faithful reliance on God instead of weapons or war; the need to speak out publicly for disarmament and justice; the importance of silence, solitude, and minduflness; the daily celebration of the resurrection and the wonder of creation.

In the end, John Dear invites us to take up Thomas Mertons journey and become mature spiritual seekers who break beyond the accepted norms of religious obligation into universal love, compassion, and friendship with God, that we too might become peacemakers, the beloved sons and daughters of the God of peace.

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State Legislative Update from the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry

The following update from the 2016 session of the New Mexico State Legislature comes from Ruth Hoffman, director of Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-New Mexico.

Summary of the major bills relating to the LAM-NM Advocacy Agenda 

(Bills LAM-NM supports are "green" & bills we oppose are "red") 

The estimates of state revenue are dismal! 
This means that the state budget for the next fiscal year will be very lean and the budget for the current fiscal year is underfunded. It is crucial that the state budget not be balanced by making deep cuts in the programs that impact the lives of our many neighbors living in poverty. HB2, the state budget bill, has passed the House and is now in the Senate Finance Committee. 

Affordable Housing & Homelessness: 
SB63 (Sen. Nancy Rodriguez) Requests an appropriation of $5 million for the State Housing Trust Fund which provides funding to build affordable housing projects around the state. SB63 is in the Senate Finance Committee.

SB202 (Sen. Bill ONeill) Adds "homelessness" as a protected group in the NM Hate Crimes Act. SB202 was tabled in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

HB59 & HB88 (Rep. Tomas Salazar) Request a total of $4.5 million for transitional/permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing and other services. No new funding for these programs is included in the current version of HB2, the state budget bill.

Family-Sustaining Income
LAM-NM is supporting increasing the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families monthly cash assistance amount.

No increase is included in the current version of HB2, the state budget bill.

SJR2 (Sen. Michael Padilla)
This constitutional amendment would allow an increase in the distribution from the Land Grant Permanent Fund to fund quality early childhood programs. SJR2 passed the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee and is now in the Senate Finance Committee.

HJR11 (Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero)
This constitutional amendment would have asked voters to approve putting a cap of 36% on loans in our state. HJR11 was tabled in the House Business & Employment Committee.

Health Care
LAM-NM is advocating for adequate funding for the state Medicaid program. The current version of the HB2, the state budget bill, includes about a $40 million cut to the Medicaid program.

HB191 (Rep. Dennis Roch & Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto) and SB217 (Sen. Benny Shendo & Rep. Sharon Clahchischilliage) Would create the profession of dental therapist. These bills have not been ruled germane for consideration in this session.

Hunger
SB52 (Sen. Nancy Rodriguez) Requests $400,000 for the State SNAP Supplement Program which serves over 11,000 seniors and people with disabilities by increasing their basic SNAP amount to at least $25. We are advocating for funding to increase the minimum amount to $30 per month. SB52 is in the Senate Finance Committee. Funding to increase the monthly minimum amount to $28 is included in the current version of HB2, the state budget bill.

Tax Policy
HB79 (Rep. Bill McCamley) Would increase the state Working Families Tax Credit from 10% to 20% of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit and to repeal the capital gains tax deduction. HB79 passed the House Business & Employment Committee without recommendation and was tabled in the House Ways & Means Committee.

Immigration
HB99, as amended ( Rep. Paul Pacheco) HB99 passed the House and was amended in the Senate Public Affairs Committee to reflect the provisions in SB256 (Sens. John Arthur Smith & Stuart Ingle). HB99, as amended, passed that committee by a vote of 8-1 and then passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously. The amendments provide for a 2 tier license system. Residents can choose to get a REAL ID drivers license if they need one or choose to get a drivers privilege card. Drivers privilege cards would be available to both legal residents and undocumented residents. HB99 is now in the Senate Finance Committee.

Criminal Justice
SB140 (Sen. Mary Kay Papen) Would prohibit solitary confinement for juveniles and people with a serious mental illness and would require prisons, jails and detention centers to report information about who is held in solitary confinement. SB140 has not been ruled germane for consideration in this session.

SJR1 (Sen. Peter Wirth & Sen. Sander Rue) This is a constitutional amendment for bail reform. SJR1 would allow judges to deny bail for dangerous arrestees and also prohibit keep arrestees who are not deemed dangerous from being held in jail only because they cant afford bail. SJR1 passed the Senate Floor by a vote of 29-9, has passed the House Judiciary Committee and is how in the House Regulatory & Public Affairs Committee.

LAM-NM will advocating on legislation relating to our 2016 Advocacy Agenda. We work in an advocacy partnership with the NM Conference of Churches and the Presbytery of Santa Fe.

Watch for LAM-NM Advocacy Updates and Action Alerts! Forward our Updates to others that might be interested in these issues using the link at the end of this email.

Thank you for your advocacy actions!

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Observing International Peace Day

Although it may seem hopelessly distant, the dream of peace pulses in the lives of people everywhere.  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Each year the United Nations and member nations observe International Day of Peace on the 21st of September. The theme of this year’s commemoration is “Partnerships for Peace – Dignity for All” which aims to highlight the importance of all segments of society to work together to strive for peace.

"Non-governmental organizations, faith-based groups and corporations all have a role to play in fostering social progress, protecting the environment and creating a more just, stable and peaceful world. The value of this collaboration is our theme for the Day: “Partnerships for Peace – Dignity for All,” said the UN.

Here are excerpts from a speech by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to commemorate this years International Day of Peace, which is held in conjunction with the 70th anniversary of the UN.

"I call on all warring parties to lay down their weapons and observe a global ceasefire. To them I say: stop the killings and the destruction, and create space for lasting peace. Although it may seem hopelessly distant, the dream of peace pulses in the lives of people everywhere....

We live at a moment of peril – but this is also an era of great promise. In a matter of days, leaders from across the globe will gather at the United Nations to adopt the 2030 agenda, our 15-year plan to achieve sustainable development. This is fundamental to ushering in a life of dignity for all, where poverty is history and peace is paramount.

On the International Day, as we mark the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, let us seize the opportunity achieve the Organization’s founding purpose: to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war."   Read full address

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Syrup Update

Of the eight taps we have in our yard sugar bush, only a couple have been flowing significantly.  The Tree of Heaven, both Bradford pears, and one of the Siberian elms havent even made a drip, the other elm has about a cup of sap, and the Lombardy poplar has about half a cup.  But the other two, the box elders, have been running like a gazelle.  By early Saturday morning, we had collected 38.4 lbs of sap, which means it was time to start boilin it down!

First: a measurement.  Our sap is starting off at about 2.5 wt% sugar, according to our hydrometer. Not bad for a box elder, pretty much in line with a study from St. Johns University in Minnesota.  But more importantly, with that number, we can calculate all sorts of expectations for this batch of syrup.  Allow us to momentarily digress!

This is the sugar content of the box elder sap on the Balling scale, which is essentially the same as the Brix scale more commonly used for sap measurements. (Using the same hydrometer we use for brewing wine.)

For example, knowing the wt% sugar, we can use the tables here to calculate the density of the sap and the resulting syrup (because syrup is normally 66 wt% sugar, which is very close to the solubility limit at room temperature), which will give us the volume of the sap and the resulting syrup, and our expected ratio.  Those calculations are detailed in this spreadsheet, if you want to plug in the numbers from your own sap. For us, our 38.4 lbs of sap at 2.5 wt% sugar works out to about 4.6 gallons, from which we should be able to expect just over two cups of finished syrup. (But note the caveat below.) 

38.4 lbs of sap at 2.5 wt% sugar should yield about 2.1 cups of syrup, which would be a ratio of 34.6:1.  That would be pretty good for a box elder.

We can also use other tables in that document to calculate what the boiling point of the finished syrup should be.  It would normally be 4 °C (7 °F) above the boiling point of pure water wherever we are, but that depends a little bit on what the boiling point of pure water is.  Were in the suburban Denver, where water boils at about 95 °C (203 °F) due to about 18% lower absolute atmospheric pressure. (Dont worry, we used NIST data for the Antoine equation to calculate the vapor pressure of water at that temperature, and everything checks out.  Well played, Universe.)  As it turns out, the difference in boiling point increase for syrup at our elevation is within the precision of our thermocouple reader.  Or, long story short, were looking for a final temperature on our syrup of about 210 °F.  Time to light the fire!

We added a wind break to our Dakota Rocket Silo and started out using the widest-diameter pot we have.

As we started to build up a bed of embers, the air flow through the chimney part dropped off quite a bit, and we werent getting much rocket effect.  So, we widened out the pit, raked some of the coals to the back part, and added a second pot on top.  The direct contact of the pot on the coals got that pot boiling a lot faster than the one on top of the chimney, even when the rocket effect was strong.  Conductive heat transfer beats convective heat transfer (with air) every time!  If you go this route, though, be careful not to get ashes, etc. in the lower pot.

As a side note, if youre trying to use a lot of small-diameter wood (e.g., thumb-size branches from an unsightly, rabbit-attracting brush pile), breaking the sticks by hand might start to get old after the 50th or 60th one.  At that point, a loppers will become your best friend.

With the volume decreasing by about half, some of the minerals ("sugar sand") started to precipitate out.

Eventually, the volume got low enough to combine everything into one pot.  Time to make some pancakes!  We ended up adding one more layer of blocks back onto the wind break.

Pancakes done, sap still boiling.  We might have to modify our evaporator design for the next batch.  In the meantime, lets make bacon, too!

Bacon done, sap at ~35% sugar.  Daylight running out.  Time to bring it inside to finish on the stove.

And.....the finished product in a pint jar.  Its delicious.

Ok, so the finished product looks much closer to one cup in volume than the two we expected.  Why the difference? (Heres the caveat we mentioned above.)  There are a number of potential contributions.  The equations above are for solutions of sucrose in water, so the initial 2.5 wt% reading we took didnt account for other dissolved solids (e.g., the sugar sand that precipitated out during cooking).  That is, we might have started out with lower than 2.5 wt% sugar.  Also, there were some losses on transferring between buckets and pans, filtering, and what we took out for testing along the way.  We were also physically unable to resist trying some of the 35% stuff on the pancakes, which probably accounted for at least 1/4 cup (dont judge!).  Finally, we also ended up going a little bit over 66% sugar (closer to 70%, based on our honey refractometers scale, which had store-bought maple syrup right at 66%), which would decrease the volume, in theory, by about another 1/6 cup.   Overall, even if we got one cup syrup instead of two, our sap-to-syrup volume ratio was still a respectable 70:1.  In general, it looks like the calculations above should get you to at least within a factor of two.

How is your syrup season going?

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Wild Fishery Processing Concerns In Newfoundland

In what has to be unprecedented stand for a Newfoundland fisheries Minister, Tom Rideout said that Fishery Products International is being investigated for illegally shipping whole unprocessed flounder out of the Province.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government plans to charge the company for sending yellowtail flounder to China for processing, the fisheries minister said Tuesday.

The company didnt obtain the required exemption under the Fish Inspection Act before shipping unprocessed fish out of the province, said Tom Rideout.

Speaking at a rally of Burin fish plant workers, Rideout donned an FFAW cap and said “They broke the law..and they will be charged. We are not going to put up with it.” FPI takes the legal charges very seriously, and the company promised a response. Russ Carrigan, an FPI spokesman, said the company is angered by the minister’s statements.
Companies can get in serious trouble when they run afoul of the law in a volatile political situation. A proven illegal act could weaken FPI’s hand in negotiating with both the federal and provincial authorities concerning processing plant operations in the province.

Plant workers and the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union president Earle McCurdy are angry, and are trying to keep jobs at the plants.

"That fish belongs to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, not to a bunch of shareholders that operates under the Chinese flag," said McCurdy.

CBC News Story Link

My Thoughts: Fish processing jobs are important in a Province that has already been hard hit economically due to large scale fishery closures. Many families depend on work within those plants as their near sole source of annual income, much of which is only seasonal employment. Since the fishery closures, the out of province migration of people has increased at a high rate. With many families moving to other parts of the country to seek work. Thus its not hard to see why people become angery when raw fish products are shipped elsewhere for processing.

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