Spring Ahead!

Spring Ahead!  It's that time again, Maple Syrup time!  I had never done this before last year, but I decided to give it a try.  I got some small plastic taps that are placed into the tree and then after cutting a small "T" shaped hole in the top of a milk jug,  you hang it and wait for the sap to run.  What you want is a nice sunny warm day and cold night, teens at night and thirties in the day, and sunny.

 The sap, especially this early in the season, has a slightly sweet taste right out of the tree.  Erinn is my official taste tester.  Early like this, it takes about 30 gallons to get one gallon of syrup, and the early syrup is the best, it is lighter in color and taste, but honestly it's all good!  One thing that's great is once the sap boils down a little I use it to make tea, it's great!

This is what it looks like when the spouts are in and the milk jugs are waiting.  Like I said, this is maple syrup on the cheap.  The spouts cost maybe 3 bucks a piece, and I cook the syrup on a lobster cooker til it starts to get thick, then I finish it on the side burner on my BBQ grill.  I watch the temp and once it hits 7 degrees above boiling (219) its done.  Then it's just a matter of having the canning jars steamed and ready, pour it over, and done. 

I'll be sure to post a bunch of pics of the whole cooking process, and some shots of some real sugar camps in the area.  I tend to go a little nuts with this whole syrup thing.  I try to get a gallon and a half, six quarts, of finished syrup--that will get us thru the year plus I give a little away.

Couple parting shots of Forrest and an owl nest in the top of one of the trees I'm tapping.  This tree is in pretty rough shape, but I still get some sap out of it.

It's a lot of work, but the syrup is worth it.  I understand the price now when I buy some at the store, sort of like my furniture.  Once you realize the work that goes into it,  the price makes sense.