This past weekend was gorgeous. With sunny skies and temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s the maple sap was flowing. On Saturday my husband chopped wood so that we could start boiling. The wood came from a dead maple tree on his father's land, so it was
free. We have a very low budget, low tech maple sap boiling system so we
are always looking for dead wood to harvest. He also built a fun snow tunnel with Big Bro.
On Sunday we gathered the sap and brought it to the barn. Using
my Girl Scout fire-building skills, I started a fire in the old wood
stove that we got for cheap at an estate sale a few years ago.
Everyone wanted to help build the fire, even Lil Sis.
It was almost a one-match fire, but it's been a whole year since I built a fire so it ended up actually taking two matches.
Then it was time to filter the sap to get out any dirt and bark that may have fallen into it.
Since we have a very low tech system, and a wood stove that is designed to throw heat around a room rather than just concentrate it on the pot, it took a while to get the almost 20 quarts of sap to boil. Keeping the boil is hard too because we have to frequently feed the fire. Feeding it often enough wasn't possible since since I had a Citizens Climate Lobby meeting in the afternoon so my husband was on his own with the kids and the fire.
At our slow evaporation speed it took a few hours to get down to the level shown in the
above picture. But before we went to bed that night it was done. Our first batch of 2014.
Those 20 quarts of sap in the pot yielded just half a quart of actual maple syrup. Needless to say, we do this for our own fun and enjoyment, not for profit. But the rewards are sweet!
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