Saturday, February 26th, the day after my 35th birthday I boiled my first batch of sap down into maple syrup. Well, mostly maple syrup. I sat, tended the fire, dug snow, stirred and skimmed for several hours. With only Drina and an occasional visit by Liz, I should have been bored. Instead, most of my non-syrup occupied brain was wondering why it had taken me 25 years to finally get around to this.
25 years I've lived in places lousy with maples, many of them sugar maples. They went unnoticed, or perhaps ignored through my pre-teen and teen years. Sometime in my twenties I realized that sugaring was something people all around me were doing, I just had not interest or patience for it.
A few years ago, I began to worry that it wouldn't be long before sugaring would be unknown, even here in New England, where it's more than just a tradition, it's an institution. Successive bad years (mild and/or short winters) combined with the continued suburbanization of Western Mass made me wonder if we wouldn't be importing all of our maple products from Canada in a few years.
So in the fall of 2009, when it became apparent that I had not a snowball's chance in hell of finding a place in Northampton that I both liked and could afford, I ended up looking at the hill towns for homes. As luck would have it, I ended up buying a place that has a number of maples (sugar maples mostly I think). Over the summer of 2010, I got it in my head to try sugaring.
Originally I started with just 4 trees tapped. I'm up to 10. Total investment so far has been a little on the ridiculous side (about $350). That includes 9 buckets, 11 taps, 10 cinder blocks, a galvanized tub, two 5 gallon storage tanks, two 30 gallon trash cans and a syrup tester thingamajig.
So right off the bat, I know you have questions. I said 10 trees tapped, but I purchased 9 buckets and 11 taps. Well, one tree has a yogurt container on it (it's heavily shaded, so I don't think I'm going to get much out of it). I also managed to break a tap. I'm wondering how to get it out of the tree or if I should just leave it be.
This is definitely the 'figure out what the bleep I'm doing' year in sugaring. I tapped too early, I think. I didn't do a good job storing my sap (let it freeze and then brought it in to thaw too soon, so I had to bury it again in the snow). I've only got a single pan to boil in, so the main work is happening outside, the finishing is done on the stove top.
However, I have to say, I don't think I totally screwed it up. I got a large mason jar of syrup like stuff. I'm not calling it syrup, its too thin to call syrup. However, I'm going to add it into my next batch and boil it down some more, until it is actually syrup.
Next weekend, or perhaps the weekend after that I'm going to boil again, I've learned a few things that should help me out. First, I need to level my boiling rig. The 10 cinder blocks are arranged in a U shape, with the pan sitting directly on top of the fire. This design as so far proven to be fairly efficient (with cost and construction time considered). I went through only a couple of armfuls of wood during three hours of boiling over the weekend. I was working with a very small amount of sap, but still, it seems to be working well.
Second, I need a better way to finish the syrup. While working on the kitchen stove was convenient, the cleanup and electric bill is not. I would prefer to finish on the fire, but my current rig doesn't have the room. Boiling Rig 2012 may include this option. In the mean time, I'm wondering if I can obtain a propane burner (like one used to for frying a turkey or boiling lobsters). I have a burner on my grill, however I may have a propane leak, so I'm a little reluctant to use it right now.
Third, the snow needs to be cleared from all sides of the rig. I started with just one side cleared, but quickly decided that I needed a second side cleared to avoid wind blown smoke. Really, I need to have all four sides cleared to avoid smoke and be able to access all sides of the rig.
Fourth, a thermometer. I was using Liz's cooking thermometer, which worked nicely, but I'd like to get a more constant read on the temperature. So, I'm going to purchase my own and mount it on a 1x3 that I'll lay over my boiling pan. I'll be able to monitor the temperature much more closely and perhaps avoid the minor scorching I ran into on my initial run.
Anyway, I have some pictures up on Flickr from this last weekend. Updates to come next weekend and the weekend after that.
