 |
| Drilling a hole for the tap |
|
|
After weeks of waiting for the sap to run, we had no choice but to go
out and tap trees today. The snow is very deep in the woods and getting
around is difficult, as you sink in about 2 feet. Sometimes you can
walk on top for a step or two, only to sink 2 ft down on the next
step! But, if we want any maple syrup at all this year, we have to do
it! The daytime temps are above freezing (not by much) and freezing at
night, and so that means the sap is running. We tapped about 50 trees
with much work this morning. In a good year with little to no snow, we
can tap about 200 trees. We hope to tap more if the snow melts a
little. We need a good warm rain! The photos below show the process
of tapping. We use stainless steel taps, and new clear heavy plastic
bags that we fold into shape and hang via a grommet on a 3 inch screw.
At the end of the season we toss the bags, wash out the taps in boiling
water and we're ready for next year. Due to Harold's cancer, we were
not able to make syrup the last 2 years, but he is feeling better now
and so we are going to give it a try! Some of the bags from yesterday
are already almost full, so we will have to go the route again and dump
the sap into our bulk tank for holding until we can boil on Wednesday.
Harold plans to make a type of sled to haul around the sap buckets on.
With all the work it takes THIS year to make syrup, I think the finished
product will be selling for "about 100 bucks an ounce" ! Ha!
 |
| Sinking up to my knees in snow |
 |
| Two helpful cats Spitfire and Skunker |
|
 |
| One of yesterday's bags about half full of sap (about a gallon) |
|
 |
| Hammering in the tap |
|
4 comments:
Love the pics! I've never seen modern day syrup collection, just the pics in the Little House books. :)
Oh my gosh it wasn't until I saw you standing to your knees in snow that I truly realized how much snow you all have. Unbelievable! I'm so glad Harold is feeling better so you guys can do syrup again.
It's so weird to see how clear the sap is considering the final product. That's a lot of boiling!
Maple sap has a high sugar content, but it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of finished syrup. As you boil the sap down, the sugar is concentrated and turns darker. Right now we have about 2 or 3 gallons of finished syrup made, and by Thursday we should have another 3 gallons made. We'll bottle it in pints and quarts. If the evening temps don't get down to freezing, the maple trees might start to bud out and then the maple season ends, because "buddy sap" tastes weird and bitter.
Post a Comment