a day's work

a little helper testing the syrup & waffles

in abundant sunshine

It's fits and starts for our maple syrup project this year. Right now everything's frozen up. Free-flowing sap requires nights with temps below freezing and sunny days a little above the freeze mark. There appears to be some of this optimum weather coming up for the weekend and into next week.

But so far, we've had only one of those good days. And on that gorgeous day, Monday, Oliver's pre-school came out for a field trip. Mom and Dad were excellent teachers, the kids and their parents had a great time in the sun on a beautiful day, collecting sap and sampling the syrup. 

eesh, the chill

Yesterday was nasty weather, cold and wet. Dad sat outside in the junk--with a few breaks to warm up in his truck--boiling sap all day. When it's nearly finished cooking, I bring it into the house to finish it on the stove. In every stage of this little operation, we have to pay rapt attention. In a flash, the sap can boil over or the nearly ready syrup suddenly turns to black tar. We have already burned up two big pots this year. 

Shockingly, it takes 4-5 gallons of sap to make 1 tiny little cup of syrup. With that in mind, for yesterday's full day of cooking we now have 5 precious 8-ounce jars of pure maple syrup, literally, liquid gold.