I have included some pictures of our set-up for sap boiling. The summer kitchen is perfect. 40 gallons of maple sap boils down to 1 gallon of syrup so obviously, a lot of steam is generated. You do not want all that steam in your kitchen unless you were thinking of replacing the wallpaper anyway. I’m delighted to keep the whole sticky mess outside. We have done syrup before. Like a lot of streets, ours are lined with maples. We asked permission and were able to place enough buckets within walking distance to do this. We boiled on an old box stove. It wasn’t a pretty set-up but we did get syrup for our trouble. We now have enough maples along the back fence line to tap without using street trees but if you wanted to boil, think about what’s available. We got buckets, spiles and lids for a dollar a set on Craig’s List. A lot of people have switched to tubing and are happy to get rid of the buckets so you just might find a deal. Once the sap boils down I’ll bottle it in Mason jars. If we were counting the labor, it might seem that this a silly way to spend our time but here’s the thing. I’m not going to be curing cancer or writing the Great American Novel in the next few weeks. This is as good a way to spend my time as any other and I like knowing how to do it and I like having the equipment to keep us in syrup each year.
There was a tag sale here in town this week. The estate of an long-deceased resident has finally been settled up and the house sold to a couple who want to put in a raw milk dairy and cheese shop. The house is one of those 200-year-old treasures, chock full of cool things and the prices were beyond right. I picked up this amazing crock for just $20.00. The books were just a couple of dollars each and Bruce got a painting of the barn from the Bryant Homestead. We used to live there and that barn holds a special place in my heart. I remember getting up early to walk down there and gather eggs or bottle feed a new calf. The air was so still, no traffic noise disturbed the peace. The calf would nuzzle my arm, drooling all over my barn coat while polishing off his morning feed. There is no sound quite as sweet as the soft, happy cackle of a hen who has just laid breakfast for you. One of the barn cats was always rubbing against my leg looking for a hand-out and the dog would be tugging at my jeans hoping I could be persuaded to play for a minute. I knew that the huge old cookstove would have heated up the kitchen some by the time I got in. Coffee would be waiting and I would fry up the morning’s egg haul. They were good days. We were poor as church mice but I don’t think I ever thought of it that way. Anyway, I would have paid a lot more than $10.00 for that painting.
I’m heading out to help Bruce boil. Actually, the stove is doing the work. We’re just enjoying the warmth of the stove and the smell of the maple. I sure wish I could paint. Maybe my girls will remember these days, remember how good it feels to be cold when you get to set by a stove to warm up and how good it feels to be hungry when you get to fill up with food from the labor of your hands.
February 24, 2012 at 7:46 pm
Sounds perfect! What’s Sloane’s book about?
February 24, 2012 at 11:02 pm
I would love to learn how to make syrup, how very cool is that!! What kind of stove do you have in your summer kitchen? We are thinking down the road to put in an outdoor gas stove so I can pressure can, what do you think? Would it work?
February 25, 2012 at 5:50 am
when I was a teen, we lived in a small community in northern vermont and almost everyone boiled the sap from their maples. My brother, future brother in law and I decided we would do it also. We had an absolute blast learning, gathering,and boiling. Because we were in school, we could only do it in the afternoons and weekends, leaving what we had done to sit until we could get back to it…totally wrong, but it was what it was. No one figured it would amount to anything and the quality would be bad. At the end of the season, we each had a several quarts of grade A fancy syrup! Best time of my life!
I would bet that your girls remember for life the fun of doing this!
Nice fine at the tag sale!
February 25, 2012 at 6:09 am
You can see the stove in the upper left hand corner. It’s an old gas stove that we found in Bruce’s aunt’s basement and had converted to prpane. I hope it works. We’ll know this summer.
February 25, 2012 at 4:06 pm
Kathy I thought you might be interested in reading this article from Organic Consumers website. It’s one more reason for you to be glad you grow your own foods. http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22449.cfm
I thought it might give you a boost when looking forward to spring planting. As for me, I feel betrayed. Lots of other people are feeling the same. I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before the chemicals from Monsanto drift into backyard gardens.
Anita
February 26, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Na Na – thanks for that article. My BF has always been suspicious of the “organic” label (he eats very conventionally), but I always made the effort to eat organically when I could. I’m beginning to see is right, and it gives me even more incentive to grow my own as much as I can.
Also, in the past few years I’ve worked with different local CSA farmers who farm organically but have not gotten certified. I’m guessing the certification process is expensive/time consuming.
Kathy – keep up the good work and the great posts!
February 26, 2012 at 11:17 pm
I have read that it takes a lot of sap to make syrup. Do you have an idea about how much sap you have collected and how much syrup you will have?
February 27, 2012 at 6:47 am
Our hope is that we will collect btween 40 and 80 gallons of sap and get 1 to 2 gallons of syrup but that may be optimistic. We only have a bit less than 1/2 gallon of syrup so far. The Sloane book is The Second Barrel.