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.
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