Monday, February 17, 2014

Boiling day, take 1

I have a few gallons of maple sap gathered, so it's time to have a boiling day.
With so little sap, boiling down goes much faster than the looong days they talk about in books; they're talking about dozens to hundreds of gallons.  So I've added the couple of gallons I had into a pot and boiled it down a few inches and added more…
Thanks to Sara and Miles for use of their pot!
And added more and more and more bit by bit.  Then I went outside and got what had dripped into the bags between early yesterday afternoon when I'd last gone out and this morning.  Of course it was all frozen so I have sap-sicles:
Frozen sap seems like it should be invoked in a Shakespearian insult.
But now I'll add these one or two at a time and keep boiling down.  By then maybe it will have warmed up enough for more sap to be in the bags, but I doubt I'm getting anything much today; at almost 10 AM it's only 20F, so chances of getting above freezing are slim.  The next few days are predicted to be in the 50's to 60's so if I want the sap then I'll have to be getting it every few hours to keep it from spoiling.  Out of the frying pan into the fire.  Who knows what next week will bring?

Anyhow by the afternoon I should have one pint of maple syrup I wouldn't have had before.  And a pint of syrup is nothing to sneeze at.  Hopefully I'll get a few more over the next few weeks before I put the equipment away.

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