It is raining today so I don't think I'm going to hike out to the "lake" and gather sap. (I do have other boots and will wear those rather than the leaky boot when I go out tomorrow). The flow slows down if it is cloudy or cool. The night temps have to stay above freezing and daytime temps can't go over ...I think 45--I can't remember. If it is too warm, there is a risk of bacteria developing. The trees that aren't in the "lake" produced over 8 liters for each tap yesterday (5 taps=40 liters = 1 liter of syrup)! The DH is evap'ing sap like crazy <g>. We're just at the beginning of the season--if the weather holds, we should have at least 2-3 weeks, maybe 4 of sap before temps get too warm...It is a bit of work--we don't have a sugar shack so we use the forge as the heat source on which to evap the syrup. It takes about 24 hours. My dad uses one of those propane turkey fryers--he runs that all day, and then the next day he finishes the sap on the stove. I just don't need that much moisture in the house! The good news, you can freeze sap for about 12 months. This means that we can evap inside when we fire up the woodstove during the deep freeze in December/January and evap on top of the woodstove.
Am I the only one here who's making maple syrup?
Me!
I can't find oysters anywhere around here!
