the last of the sap, the end of the sugaring

                                                last bucket, Saturday

Our trees produced and produced and produced.  We had no idea.  We couldn't keep up with it.  We were drinking sap and giving sap away.  We ended up dumping some too.  (Thank you trees!)  We did our best to boil most of it.

We tried boiling that sap three ways.

1) on the woodstove.

but it never boiled, only evaporated, and it was quite slow.

2)  over a fire outside

but the syrup turned out a little smokey.  (Which might be because the same little boys who couldn't resist lighting the ends of sticks also couldn't resist poking the lit sticks into the pot of sap.)  We needed a much bigger fire and a much wider pan.

3) on the stove

which was the most effective.  We had been warned that boiling inside would make all of our wallpaper peel (2 separate friends shared the same warning, coming from experience), but since we don't have any wallpaper, we went for it. No ill effects, outside of some steamy windows, and some sticky floors.

 The very last bit is on the stove right now.  My "I-can't-sleep" boy just came down and sniffed.  "I smell maple syrup!" he whispered.

It takes from 30-40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.  So we won't have gallons, but we will have a few delicious containers worth, some to keep and some to give away.  And I tell you what, it is satisfying to eat pancakes with syrup that you boiled yourself from your own trees.

Comments

[sap support packs]

Hi1 Just wanted to say that I love your blog... and I really enjoyed this one... Amazing photos! I wish I could fill so many buckets with sap...