Sugaring
As sugaring season sets it, you can say goodbye to bedtimes, day jobs, and any notion of a standard meal hour. The sap is flowing, and must be boiled down to syrup; the sooner the better for the highest quality product. The sap doesn't flow every day however; only when the air temperature drops below freezing at night, and rises above freezing during the day. Each season, boiling will take place an average of 17 times on our farm, over the course of 4-8 weeks. Last year, thirteen of those boils occurred on consecutive days! As boiling the sap generally begins in the evening and stretches on into the night or early morning, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches become the go-to meal for lunch, dinner, even breakfast.
The sap to syrup transformation is simple: it takes 40 gallons of sap to yield one gallon of syrup. All you have to do is boil it down, to a mere fraction of what it was. The sap begins in the back pan, and as more and more water is evaporated, it makes its way to the front pans. Here the almost-syrup must be tested frequently for sugar content; it must be at a certain level to be considered syrup. When it is finally ready, it is drawn off slowly, in small quantities, and then stored in a 40-gallon steel drum, where it will keep best over the year. The syrup must also be categorized by grade: fancy, medium amber, dark amber, or B. Generally, a sugarbush will make fancy at the beginning of the season, and progress toward B at the end. B is much darker in color and has a very strong maple flavor, while fancy is much lighter. The amount of each grade that is made depends on the trees, the temperatures, wind and other weather; there are no guarantees.
The sap to syrup transformation is simple: it takes 40 gallons of sap to yield one gallon of syrup. All you have to do is boil it down, to a mere fraction of what it was. The sap begins in the back pan, and as more and more water is evaporated, it makes its way to the front pans. Here the almost-syrup must be tested frequently for sugar content; it must be at a certain level to be considered syrup. When it is finally ready, it is drawn off slowly, in small quantities, and then stored in a 40-gallon steel drum, where it will keep best over the year. The syrup must also be categorized by grade: fancy, medium amber, dark amber, or B. Generally, a sugarbush will make fancy at the beginning of the season, and progress toward B at the end. B is much darker in color and has a very strong maple flavor, while fancy is much lighter. The amount of each grade that is made depends on the trees, the temperatures, wind and other weather; there are no guarantees.
