make sure all of the preparations have been made. This means ensuring all of the harvest equipment is in good order and the harvest supplies are plentiful.When harvesting bunches, it is important to have enough bunch ties. These are the ties I use to collect and hang bunches for drying. I use only natural twine. Here to the right is a sample. It consists of a big loop shown at the stop, which is tied with a slip knot. The bunches are inserted into this loop, then the end is cinched taught around the bunch. At the tip is a fixed loop so the bunches can be hung in the drying shed if necessary. I reuse the old bunch ties from last year. However, as the crop is growing, it is important to make new ties each year to ensure there is enough.
This year, inspecting the distillery, there were a couple of minor repairs needed before the harvest began. The most important repair was to the gasket that seals the basket in the boiler. It had separated at the seams and was allowing steam to come out through the cracks rather than being forced into the condenser.
I ordered a replacement gasket, but it did not arrive in time, therefore I needed to make some field repairs to get the distillery online for harvest. After a couple of attempts just to bond the seams together, it was clear that the surface area for the bond was not adequate for a strong joint. So I used the olde fashioned way: needle and thread. I sewed up the rubber seams using a hook needle and some strong thread.
There was still a gap however. This needed to be sealed with some high-temperature gasket material. In the photo to the right, you can see the finished repair.
In addition there were a few minor problems with the ignition system of the distillery. A metal deflector had broken during adjustment. After a few different modifications, I managed to get the ignitor to light the pilot automatically, and the unit was ready to begin distilling.
Scythe sharpened, all is ready for harvest!
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