tapping

We got the first part of this year's maple harvest going today, a good two weeks earlier than we started last year... February 20 vs. March 6. New set-up this year, too. Here's last year's operation, with lots of 1 gallon non-lidded buckets hanging on the taps themselves.

Sometimes we had to empty these smaller buckets twice a day, and it made for lots of spillage and bugs.

This year, we've gotten smarter. Non-toxic tubing leading right through the covers of 5-gallon buckets resting on the ground!

This is nothing compared to the set-ups of some of our neighbors- blue tubing snaking through the woods, all leading to a thousand-gallon tank- but we're feeling pretty clever.

The next step is a redesign on what and how we evaporate the sap. Last year, we boiled 40 gallons of sap into 5 gallons of syrup using deep pots on an old cookstove in our yard. It took a long time. Weeks, really. Over dinner tonight we discussed designs for a homemade evaporator. Is there a way to build a maple sap evaporator slash wood-fired pizza oven? Oh, let's hope so.

Maple syrup and honey, both eternally lovely, have ascended the ranks of pantry royalty for me. The hale and hearty Jake has not eaten refined sugar for more than half of his life, and I'm determined anew, after some recent reading, to join his ranks. Wish this sweettooth luck... and a long and prosperous syrup season!