Maple Syrup...second successful year

This winter has been hard...no doubt about it.

I tried to be optimistic for several months.

It just got harder and harder to find the wonder in the winter season.

Our backs were sore from shoveling what felt like tons of snow.

Our roof was starting to bend under the strain.

We didn't have the normal January thaw.

The deep freeze just kept on coming...

The weather networks kept coming up with new ways to say the same thing:

-Arctic Freeze

-Polar Vortex

In other words...extremely cold and so much snow that travel became non existent.

Then the time came to tap the neighbouring sugar maples.

It felt like we would never make it!

The light at the end of the wintry tunnel.

But the weeks wore on, and the temps were too cold.

The maple tapping would wait 2 weeks after we would normally be

getting a sap surplus.

The winds didn't cooperate either.

By the time we got the temperatures for collecting the running sap,

The winds made having a campfire almost prohibitive.

Ches was forced to construct a make shift cabin around the pit.

Halfway to a sugar shack!

He also employed a piece of metal scavenged from a friend.

The wind barrier keeps the heat from escaping too much.

The foil keeps out the ashes but still allows the steam to escape.

The temperatures this spring made sure we didn't collect as much sap as last year.

That just means we can't give any mason jars away...sadly.

We bring the pots inside when they are close to being done.

That's when you get a chance to strain the sap while pouring it into smaller pot.

We use an old fashions metal sieve with a wad of cheesecloth.

The cheesecloth is a wondrous thing!

You can rinse and re-use it over and over.

Talk about keeping your overall costs down.

We haven't bought a single thing (ok $3.00 for cheesecloth)

since last year's original investment of around $140 taxes included.

Essentially, this year's maple syrup is free!

Tapping those Sugar Maples....part 2

Part 1 was originally posted last winter...

...we now return to our show!

Collecting the sap has proven to be the easiest part of the process!

Filtering and storing the sap is tricky, but can be done.

The best comparison I've found is milk.

You must store the unprocessed sap like you would milk.

You have to keep it cool but not frozen.

We kept the sap in the snowbank in sealed buckets.

Cover them up too...

Fantastic Husband then constructed a very basic module for processing the sap.

He took our copper firepit and loaded it with wood.

Around the firepit, he placed several green logs (wood not seasoned/dried) for use as supports.

On top of those green logs, he placed a door from a fence we disassembled on the property.

He filled some large pots with the sap and boiled slowly for about a day.

He collected, stored and processed sap for about 2 weeks before his enthusiasm diminished.

That's about when the sap started running like CRAZY.

He asked me one night...should I keep collecting sap?

He felt obliged to the trees to continue tapping.

My response was simple...if you are asking the question, then you've already made up your mind.

Quit now (while you're ahead) before the whole experience makes you bitter.

After the sap boiled outside for the day,

he would bring the pots inside to continue to boil the sap down on the stove top.

That's when the process becomes very tricky.

We went through a whole batch before someone mentioned adding milk.

Something we hadn't really read about...or read and didn't really believe that was a necessary step.

The sap has dusty sediment called affectionately called sugar dust.

It isn't harmful...but it also isn't pretty.

You add the milk towards the end and it miraculously clarifies the sap.

You end up with a more translucent sap!

If you boil the sap too long, you get candy instead of syrup.

The only item we neglected to pick up before starting this endeavour was a candy thermometer.

I mean, how many opportunities do you have to use a candy thermometer?!?!

(Not much in our house...there's already too much store bought stuff)

I never would have thought we would be tapping maple trees...and yet there we were...

Ah well,  the first batch was a bit thick.

The second, third and fourth batches were much better!

Above you can see the difference in colour between batches.

The longer you wait in the tapping season, the darker the colour of syrup.

We put the thicker candy-like syrup on some snow.

Made Husband and I feel like we kids all over again.

(The actual kids loved it too)

We used to have a family tradition of eating pancakes on Saturday mornings.

That was before I became a shift-working, part timer.

Most of my shift happen on the weekends now, but we still have wonderful memories.

Pancakes on snowy mornings...

We decided to try something a little different this year.

French Toast!

Owen helped while I observed.

The fresh homemade maple syrup was better than I could have imagined.

It tasted like the wood we used to boil it down.

Delicate hints of cedar and poplar, not to mention the smokey flavour that permeated the sauce.

It was like maple syrup straight out of the woods!

It was by no means a highly industrialized effort.

In the end, it was a very time consuming and very laborious labor of love...

...but WORTH EVERY BITE!!!

We are making syrup again this week...so stay tuned to my Facebook page for meals and recipes

featuring the lovely syrup of the gods....

Tapping those Sugar Maples...part 1

In the early days of this blog, I used to wax on about history, tradition, and making memories with our children.  My husband and I still feel this way...I just don't go on about it like I used to on this blog.

We feel it is important  to reconnect with our roots as Canadians.

To make things from scratch that we all take for granted these days.

On that note, it's been on our minds to tap sugar maples and try our hand at home made maple syrup.

We go to the sugar bush every year

(as is tradition in some families over the March Break aka "Maple Madness")

The kids spend more time trying to get their hands on the "sweet water" than actually learning about how syrup was made in the past and how its made today.

We were determined to change that!

Not sure if you remember but we started out approximately 2 years ago by marking the trees in the fall.  (Original post link below...)

http://smallpursebiggarden.blogspot.ca/2011/10/on-hunt-for-sugar-maplesthe-beginning.html

It sounded obvious, but if you are going to identify a tree by its leaves, you can't wait until March to do that.

We spray painted a small dot on the trees that looked to be in good condition and hoped for a good spring.

The years passed, while our lives got busy with moving and selling our house.

We were just about to turn our heads in the maple syrup tapping direction this year, when my husband noticed the 7 day forecast was showing very favourably for tapping weather!

The research began...with numerous searches on several different websites.

Of the various sites my husband looked at, the one below was the only one he bookmarked:

http://tapmytrees.com/taptree.html

We also looked at the following book's chapter on maple tapping:

One trip to the local hardware store and we have all we need for our adventure...

(It was only about $140 including taxes)

Consisting of:

10 blue buckets

10 plastic lids with holes punched into them

10 spouts (spiles)

1 drill

1 drill bit (7/8")

1 prier

1 hammer

A better look at the tools...

Close up on the spouts...

 

We always have lids at our house leftover from various plastic buckets we have for food storage,

cat litter, cat food, etc...all washed, of course.

We loaded up the wooden sled and felt like pioneers.

The first ones to trek across the crusty white field.

We were breaking into new territory.

The prints of a wild rabbit racing across the hard, crusty snow.

We lose our child into the wild...the crisp beauty of the winter.

He scales mountains...

We use the tools of the trade...and hang them in the bush so we don't lose them.

Our first spile is planted...

The spout rests easily between the bucket and the plastic lid.

Drilling at the proper angle as per the books and websites

we checked prior to starting this adventure.

Side view.

If you're wondering about how far from home we had to travel,

You can see our house from the sugar patch...

Husband all tired of hammering in spiles...starts to go postal...

A small community of buckets waits for the milder weather.

A soft mossy rock frozen in winter...

All the while...our child becomes more feral...

Stalking the woods like he's lived there his whole life...

While $140 might sound like a lot...consider it a downpayment.

It will enable us to keep tapping and making syrup for years to come. 

The eventual cost per jar will be dependant on how many years we decide to do this little endeavour.



On the hunt for Sugar Maples...the beginning of a series...

We spent a magical afternoon in the woods this past weekend.  The weather was pretty crappy out, but after a couple of days inside, I really need to get in touch with nature again.  Fall weather is great, but you get some patches of wet, damp weather that make you want to watch movies all day.

I was determined not to let the wind and rain get the better of us.

The trees were very welcoming.  They provided shelter from the wind and rain.  It's like they wanted us to be there that day.  We came armed with snacks, hot chocolate in a thermos and a book called "The Backyard Homestead" edited by Carleen Madigan.  We borrowed this book from a friend and it has yet to make its way home to its owner.  Its a fantastic book about all the things you can grow and provide for your family on as little as a 1/4 of an acre of land!  There is a chapter in this book about how to tap your own maple syrup.  While we have never done this in the past (or even known anyone who has done it), we thought "why not us?".

Last spring we aided my Hubbie's parents in cleaning up a former dump on their property.  People had just pitched all sorts of lovelies into the woods behind their home.  We took the whole family on clean up day and actually had a blast.  It was like a treasure hunt, a rummage pile, a garbage dump and a historical lesson all wrapped up into one day.  We found everything from a car, appliances, old hub caps and MAPLE SYRUP TAPPING BUCKETS! 

We went hunting for sugar maple trees in these woods this past weekend.  Hubbie and I have talked for years about getting into his parent's woods and marking which trees we could tap.   Since we've never done this before, we were glad to have the book with us as a sort of guide.  It was almost as if the forest wanted us to find the right trees...  

They were already marked!

We marked them again anyhow...just to make sure which ones WE were going to tap.  Over a dozen potential tapping treese were marked that day.

The kids had a blast in the woods.  They too were having some much needed outside time (and it was a lot safer since we'd cleared out a lot of the hazards last year).

The colours on the forest floor were amazing.  The book told us all about the right colour of leaf to look for...so you didn't tap the wrong kind of maple tree.  Pink to orange and then yellow, those were the leaf colours we needed to find for sugar maple trees.  Small leaves in the shape of our Canadian flag leaf...not the jagged edges of the red maple nor the giant leaves of the Norway maple.

Hubbie went up on a hill to mark some more maples.

The boys were very much at home here in the woods. 

They looked like they could have stayed outside all day. 

A look up into the tree tops.  It was beautiful even though it was cloudy.

It was great to let the kids go on their own adventures in the woods.

Even if it was only for a short while before they came running back to Mum.

We'll see how our little experiement turns out this spring.  Stay tuned for follow up posts about this!  This is our first year and we just might not get this right.  Fingers crossed it all works out...but thats what this blog is all about.   Testing those things that books write about.  Passing or failing...but at least trying.  Gaining a better appreciation for things that come all too easily these days.

Doing it together as a family.