Boiling Sap.

There is so much. So much sap. Holy cow. We don't have small trees, so that is part of it, but I don't think we were prepared for how much we have gotten.

I got home from school and the boiling sap process had begun. I missed taking pictures of straining the sap with a splatter screen we got with our cookware set and a piece of cheescloth over it. The stock pot with thick walls is doing better, from the report I got upon arrival home, now that it is in the garage, protected rather than out in the driveway. It was reported that the wind kept affecting the flame. The sap starts out just looking just like water, but as the sugar content gets higher and the water content gets lower, the color begins to darken...seen here.



We, and by we I mean not me, boiled the sap for a couple hours and got it reduced down to a quantity that we could move inside to finish. For us, right now, that means my 8 quart stock pot. Which is boiling on my stove as I type. We are monitoring the reduction. And by we I mean me. The boys are outside in the garage, with the next batch of raw sap. They just came in to report that it is now boiling, after maybe 4o minutes on the flame.



We are planning on canning it in Mason jars when we get to the point where we have syrup. The sap is syrup when the temperature reads 104 celsius or 220 Farenheit. I am a little nervous about being in charge of the finishing as if I miss the point of syrup and it turns into Maple Sugar, I screwed up. OR worse yet, burn it and ruin it.

I will tell you that everyone here is pretty excited for breakfast tomorrow. Mmmm, pancakes, homemade syrup and breakfast links made by the boys in the last round of meating. If the aroma of the kitchen right now is any indication, yum. And Yum.