My racquetball playing dad, knows another racquetball playing man who also produces his own syrup annually. My dad, in passing, mentioned to the man that his daughter and son-in-law were attempting to tap and process their own sap and the man in turn offered an evaporating contraption that he no longer used.
So we inherited this enclosed fireplace with a deep cast-iron bowl which sets on the top. It allowed us to boil a much larger volume of sap at once, so we increased our tapping to seven spiles and used our new outdoor oven twice before the end of syrup season. On our last day of boiling, we lit the fire at 8 in the morning, boiled down a total of thirty gallons of sap, finished up at midnight with a bit more than a half gallon of quite fluid, but pleasingly sweet syrup.
The season is over already. With the warm winter, we should have begun tapping a few weeks earlier, but we didn't know. We jumped in with very little preparation or understanding and just learned and acquired needed materials as we went.
i'm going to need to remember to allot time off during tapping season next year. If we tap early enough, and with enough spiles, we'll need several full days to boil it all down. From the taste of it, though, it will be worth it.
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool! I love your life! Someday when we finally visit I'll make you my homemade Buttermilk Pancakes and you can share your homemade goodness.
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