Sugarbush 2014 started out pretty slow, but finally the Maple trees are letting their precious liquid flow.
Last weekend was our first boil of the season. It was a cold, rainy, blustery day so Rick put together a canopy of sorts to keep any unwanted drops of moisture our of the boiling pans.
It wasn’t the most attractive contraption, but we use what we got and as long as it does the job, that’s all right in our book.
I think this year marks the earliest that we’ve gotten the fire going . By 8:30 am we had a roaring fire and both pans in position and filled with sap.
Before the clock could strike 10:00, that sap was boiling and we were in business.
We processed 40 gallons of sap that day which got us 1 gallon, 2 pints, and one 1/2 pint of sweet, sticky syrup. Nummmmmmm.
Unbeknownst to us, our sugarbush was not over yet. This last week was pretty chilly and we didn’t pay much attention to the taps and buckets. When Rick went to check them on Thursday after the snowstorm, he was surprised to find that the trees were still running and collected 16 gallons of sap!
I checked the trees Friday afternoon and hauled in another 16 gallons. 3 hours later Rick made the rounds when he got home from work and brought in another 13 gallons!! Wow.
Saturday’s yield was 23 gallons bringing our 3 day total to 68 gallons. Holy crap!!!
Our Easter Sunday will not be spent eating ham and gorging on chocolate, instead we will be keeping a roaring fire going and boiling sap well into the night.
I much prefer tasting hot maple syrup from the fire than processed chocolate any day.
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