We have learned a lot since we started making syrup. Planting, growing and harvesting came natural to us, since farming is a family tradition. Pressing is simple, but we found setting the horizontal press correctly, sure made the job easier. We strained the juice once through burlap, twice through 400 mesh filters, and the syrup once through a 400 mesh filter. The best improvement we made was adding a 500 gallon preheating tank with a propane boiler. We preheat 300 gallons of juice down to 100 gals. of concentrated juice. All the separation occurs in the preheating tank, which leaves approximately 2 hrs. of cooking in a stainless batch pan. We then bottle the pure syrup in 12oz bottles.