Maple Syrup 2016 Part 4: Finishing the syrup and canning

Today I finished up the "near syrup" from Saturday night.  We usually let the "near syrup" settle out for a day or so before bringing it inside to boil further until it reaches 218.6 degrees.  Then it is filtered again, and brought back up to 180-185 deg and put into canning jars to seal.   The jars do not need to be processed like other types of canning.

I usually have two pans going.  With a window open to let the steam out of the kitchen, I boil the "near syrup" until it becomes real Maple Syrup!  This happens around 219 or slightly less. 

When the syrup reaches the proper syrup point of 218.6 the top of the liquid becomes suddenly bubbly and foamy - it practically explodes into bubbles. 

Then the hot syrup is poured into a special felted wool filter to take out any sediment (niter)

I suspend the wool filter between two chairs, supported by broomsticks.

After the syrup is filtered, I bring the syrup back up to about 180-185 degrees (trying not to get over 190 deg).  The hot syrup is ladled into hot sterile jars and hot sterile lids and rings are put on, and the jar is allowed to cool and seal.

The first batch of wonderful tasty maple syrup - 8 pints - 1 gallon's worth!

Whew!  And that is how maple syrup is made!  We will repeat all these steps over and over and over for each batch, working with sap until the season ends (when the trees bud out), or until we are completely sick and tired of working with sap (usually the case!)  It is indeed a real time consuming and tedious process, no question.  With all this work, is it any wonder that maple syrup costs so much per pint?   We sell ours for $10/pint, and I'm sure that price comes nowhere near  to reimbursing us for our time and effort.   We get sore backs and aching muscles and legs and sometimes need Tylenol to sleep at night, but it really is totally worth it!  Of course we try hard to make things easier every year as we sure aren't getting any younger, and making maple syrup is definitely for young strong bodies!  The "big boys" of maple syrup making,  like in Vermont or Wisconsin, use the tubing system, stringing plastic hoses from tree to tree and they use pumps and special lines to bring the sap in.  They also have big furnaces in brick cookhouses for the evaporation part.  And thousands of dollars worth of fancy equipment.   But we just do things the old fashioned, tried and true way, on a small scale.
     We give away jars of our syrup for Christmas gifts to friends and family.  So if you are one of the lucky recipients of our syrup, now you know how much actual work went into your gift!