a gypsy caravan

more maple syrup and sugar

Today the kids and I decided to take the baby out for a stroll.  She has never been in a stroller and we thought she might think it a fun time to take a ride in one and get some fresh air.  So we drove up to the village square where there are sidewalks on which to push the stroller.  The square is only a couple of minutes from our house by car and there is much activity there this time of year.  Every Sunday in March, many town locations offer all you can eat pancake breakfasts, served with maple syrup that was made from the sap of the village's maple trees.  In fact, the village gets pretty excited about it all.

In the center of the village square is a log cabin that has stood there for many, many years.  It is both a working sugar house where the sap is boiled into syrup and also a store that sells maple products. 

Buckets hang on all of the trees in the village and sap is brought to the square to be boiled down at the log cabin. The men who work there are very efficient and boil down the sap at a much faster rate than normal because they put the collected sap through a reverse osmosis filter which removes much of the water, making a more concentrated sugar level.  They have been making approximately seven gallons per hour, working ten hour days.  Seventy gallons of syrup a day is quite a lot of boiling since it takes approximately 40-50 gallons of sap to make a single gallon of syrup.  

Below is a photo of the boiler.  The hose you see in the left side of the photo is bringing sap from a holding tank to the boiler.  The boiler is heated with wood and the sap boils down, creating much steam in the room as the water burns off. 

Most grocery store brands of syrup do not contain any real maple syrup anymore.  Brands like Log Cabin or Aunt Jemima are mostly corn syrup and coloring.  Real maple syrup is quite expensive, obviously because of the time consuming process to make it. Sorry for the blurry photo but people often ask how much a gallon of syrup costs...

The store sells large amounts of maple syrup and maple sugar candy.  Maple sugar candy is made by bringing the finished syrup to a temperature of 210 degrees in a large double boiler.  The liquid is then whipped with a hand mixer which adds air while it cools. Then the liquid is poured into molds and cooled completely.  An eleven gallon jug of maple syrup makes 8 lbs. of maple sugar candy.  

We have been known to come into the village a couple of times a week to buy a tiny piece.  Small maple leaves like you see above are $0.75 and there are larger pieces of candy that cost up to $3.00.  Maple sugar candy melts in your mouth and is really quite addictive.  Someday, I'd like to try a hand at making it ourselves.

Maple sugar candy makes small children (and mommies) very happy. :)

Our little Teresa had quite a busy afternoon and enjoyed her walk out of doors.  This time next year she can enjoy sugaring time by having a little piece of maple sugar candy all to herself. :)

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Speaking of maple sugar, those of you who have young boys might enjoy the book The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward.   The story centers around a boy who befriends a bear cub by feeding it maple sugar.  And many adventures follow. :)

Have a wonderful day today and thanks for stopping by! 

~Rebecca 

sugaring days

We are blessed to live on a property with trees as far as the eye can see.  Our friend Jim, who owns the property, taps his maple sugar trees each year for sap.  The sap is then boiled down into maple syrup.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one quart of syrup so quite a few buckets must be hung in order to get a fair amount of syrup.

 We were so excited to be able to help tap the trees this year.  The process of making maple syrup is really interesting.  Some facts if you'd like to read more.   

Here is Ben waiting to get started tapping after loading the buckets into the trailer.

Finding sugar maple trees in the winter when they have no leaves is tricky.  They must be identified by bark and tree shape alone. 

Isis the bulldog spent the day running behind the tractor, barking at the kids. :)

Here is sweet Annie who brightens even the coldest occasions with her warm smile.

 First, the tree is drilled to make a hole for the tap.

Next, the tap is hammered into the drilled hole.  A large tree can take two taps.

Some trees drip sap within seconds of being tapped. 

Next, a bucket is hung from the tap to collect the sap.  You can see in the above photo the notch on which the bucket hangs.  Some people use bags to collect instead of buckets. I like the buckets better. 

Mary was a good sport and a hard worker.

 

Lastly, a lid is fastened on the bucket to keep out the elements, branches, etc. that might fall into the bucket.

The weather dictates how often the bucket will need to be emptied.  During a warm spell, the sap runs faster and the bucket could need to be emptied daily. 

 

 

After we tapped the trees, everyone collected wood so that there will be a big stack to keep the fire burning when it comes time to boil the sap. 

Some people were helping...

...more than others. :)

 

So, now there is a decent sized stack of wood when it comes time to boil the sap.  Right after the trees were tapped, we got hit with a huge ice storm and a cold spell so the sap may not run as quickly as it was running last week.  The next step is to collect the sap and boil it down into syrup.  If I am able to post more photos of the process, I will.  Stay warm and safe everyone and thanks for visiting. :)