It's that time of year when the temp dips below freezing at night then warms up nicely during the day so the sap in the maple trees begins to run. The season is short 4-5 weeks and we only tap about 18 trees but that should supply us with maple syrup for the year...and maybe enough to trade with our neighbour...he has bees so we can maybe trade maple syrup for honey.
Holes are drilled into the trees and metal "taps" are inserted. The buckets are suspended from the taps to collect the sap and a little metal cover keeps the rain and snow out. The sap tastes only vaguely sweet as it contains a lot of water which will need to be boiled down in order to make maple syrup. It takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.
slowly dripping............
Full pail of sap collected and ready to be boiled down..
Charlotte enjoying the spring sunshine
Homemade evaporator consisting of roast pans, concrete blocks and a stovepipe chimney
a little bit "red-necky"...if that can be an adjective..
water boiling away.......
The finished product.......
Yum!! That is so cool!
ReplyDeleteI am in love with your cat! Maine Coon?
ReplyDeleteThis is very cool - we certainly don't have anything like this in Florida.
We're not sure as she was a stray cat that we adopted (more like she adopted us). She certainly does look like a Maine Coon and has a very laid back personality which I have heard is a trait of that breed. No maple syrup in Florida....but we have no palm trees here...and you have my mother (she's been vacationing there all month!)
ReplyDeleteWow! Just like in the Little House series! So cool to know things are still done the old fashioned way!
ReplyDelete