On to spring......

It was time to un-spile the trees this week, wash the buckets and sap collection jugs. The evaporator was hauled back into the corner of the garage. Notes were made on the repairs that Harvey Frey, a local Amish tinsmith, will have to make before we boil again. I'm actually glad there are repairs because I love driving out to Mesopotamia where he lives. I feel as though I am in another world altogether when I go there, because in fact, I am. He remembered me from 30 years ago (no kidding) when I bought this evaporator in the first place. I took him a sap bucket to solder because I did something dumb involving a freezer and a sap bucket, forgetting that ice expands. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the cutest little backyard-sized evaporator in his workshop, which I ended up putting into the back of my station wagon and the rest is history. So this winter when I needed to have a new finishing pan made (this time out of stainless steel), he remembered that I was a teacher, that Terry was a landscape architect in Chagrin Falls, and that I wanted my children to have something better to do than watch TV. I don't remember saying that 30 years ago, but I'm sure he is right.

Last week Anne and Terry transplanted broccoli and cabbage seedlings and started some kale. Part of the badminton court was tilled to make room for more vegetables.


This year we are going to market our vegetables locally, most likely from a roadside stand. We applied to the South Russell Farmers Market, but as of yet, do not have a definitive answer as to whether or not we are in.

We were thrilled to find a neighbor on Music Street who raises 40 chickens. They produce the most beautifully colored eggs I have seen. It is going to be an exciting year for the garden, changing our focus from wedding flowers in '09 to vegetables in 2010. There will be a small section, of course, for Laura Hall's August wedding flowers, though!

Sugaring Winding Down

We boiled seven times this year making a total of 19 quarts. Liz's boyfriend, Seth, visited from Cape Cod recently and helped with gathering sap and chopping wood. I always feel sorry for Terry having to work so hard for us to do this whole operation, so having Seth and Ian help with the wood was a real treat.

There was time for some igloo-building fun at the end of the afternoon. It was amazingly strong as you can see Liz and Seth on the top. After dark we put a lantern inside and oohed and ahhed at the warm glow. Very cool indeed. Thank you, Seth!

And So It Begins.......

February 28 was the day of the first boil for maple syrup this year. Liz collected sap during the week and we stockpiled it in the garage. Anne and Juniper came over for the day to help. Most years it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Some years it can take up to 60 or more gallons of sap for just ONE gallon of syrup, but we don't measure such things exactly - we just boil until we get syrup. Sap is only 2% sugar. It tastes and looks like water, with just a hint of sweetness. All the steam you see in these pictures is the water boiling off to concentrate the sap. We get it pretty far along outside until it consolidates into one pan from two, then I "finish it off" inside on the stove, watching it carefully with a thermometer. We are not skilled enough to finish it off from the evaporator. It is a sad sight to watch a day's work go into maple sugar right before your eyes because you didn't watch the thermometer carefully enough. Sap becomes syrup at 7 degrees above the boiling point of water, which is then 219 degrees.

We got 2 quarts for our day's work. Nice work, team! There is a rumor that next weekend will involve a buckwheat pancake and sausage breakfast around the steaming evaporator. A heatwave is predicted of 40 degrees!!! It should be fun in the sun.