What Have We DONE?

Remember when I said we were going to tap our silver maple trees? And we were going to make maple syrup? And how hard could it be? Well, we got a late start, and by we I mean me, on ordering the taps. Now I wanted to go all nostalgic and get the old fashioned kind of maple taps and pretend I was Laura Ingalls Wilder and all that old timey business. But, because we, and by we I mean me, were late in the ordering (Late like early last week) everything was sold out. So we got what are called drop line taps. Which is pictured above.

And actually, I think my procrastination might have been a helpful thing at this point. They are plastic taps and a rigid tube about four feet long comes out and we have put them into Ale Pails from a sugarbushing (I am pretending I am all in the maple syrup community and using the lingo. I could totally be using the terminology completely wrong.) partner in crime. He also makes beer and is a meatsmoking partner.

We tapped the trees last Monday, and by we I mean not me. I came home from school to alien looking forms. Then we promptly had a cold spell where the temperature dropped below 40 degrees during the day. No sap running.

Until today. Yikes, it got up to a measly 42, maybe 43 degrees. I picked up sticks in the yard, I raked the red rock back into the driveway from the winter of shoveling and then on a whim I thought I would check the sap buckets. This bad boy had 4/5 of the bucket full (That's a 6.5 gallon bucket, folks.). And that was at 2 pm.

There are two trees with three taps in them and five gallon buckets to collect. There are two trees like this with just one tap and a gallon-ish bucket. This baby was almost full.

!!!!!!

We went to my parents for birthday supper and came home around 7:30 pm and had to empty the little buckets AGAIN.

And we are not even in prime weather. Plentiful sap running is after the temperature drops below freezing overnight and then is sunny and near 60 the next day. Tomorrow is supposed be around 43 again, but overcast which could slow things down. We, and by we I mean not me, are going to have to boil sap tomorrow. We don't have any more containers. And the sap can't sit around when it gets to be in the 40s and 50s because bacteria grows and the sap will spoil.

So, we are making syrup.

And by we, I pretty much mean not me.
Things done so far:
-ordered taps---me.
-tapped trees---not me.
-set up buckets for collection---not me.
-bought boiling container---not me.
-bought cheesecloth to strain/clean sap---me.
-check buckets for sap level---me.
-possess inability to open ale pail covers---me.
-actually open buckets to pour sap into container bucket---not me.
-begin first boiling and actual production---not me.


Sap boiling and condensing into syrup has to be done largely outside. Two reasons, it goes faster when there is a bigger difference in temperature of the air and the sap boiling. Two, the steam is sappy and we have brick walls in our kitchen above the stove and that sticky, messy, oozy, gooey residue would never come off the uneven surface of the bricks. Not that we would even wanted to try. And by we I mean a big me.

Over and out. Sugarbushing Day Two coming soon. Unless we are inundated and can't see the light of day.