Because I get my milk from my cows, I don't have a whole bunch of these wonderful containers. Right around the new year I start asking all my friends to save theirs for me so I am ready by mid-February for MAPLE SEASON!!! Milk jugs make the best tapping buckets out there. I have a couple hundred actual maple buckets but milk jugs are easier to handle, lighter to carry a whole batch of them, they keep the critters out of the sap better, and speaking of critters--if one chews up a milk jug it's no big deal. If a squirrel chews up a twenty dollar maple bucket, it can make you want to have squirrel for dinner than night.
So today I am off to tap my first couple hundred trees. We use to tap about 300 to 400 trees but since my cousin moved back home and found out how much we can make from selling syrup, last year we tapped almost 600 and this year we are shooting for 700 trees. With this odd winter, maple syrup may be quite expensive (it depends on how good the actual season is), so my cousin is hoping we can put up a wind turbine on our new sugar shack with the profits.
Tapping Trees Last Year
For a family that lives with nature and the seasons, maple season is the transition between the cold winter months and the spring planting. We start tapping trees when the days are still below freezing and we finish the last boiling with the buds of the trees just starting to pop into leaves. Maple season is part of the quickening of the blood for spring time. Sap tea is a sweet tonic to sip by the fire as the steam rises off the pans and turns the clear sap into dark syrup.
Boiling Sap Last Year
I love the change over times of the year, spring and fall. Spring is marked by maple and fall is marked by the harvest. For thousands of years people lived by what gifts the earth was giving them at that moment of the wheel of the year. Feeling those changes of the seasons is an amazing part of living on the homestead. While others are still moaning the winter blues, the cardinals are calling me out into the snowy woods; "Don't wait. Spring will be here soon." And with maple season, spring is a sweet season indeed.
Oh, how I WISH we had maple trees here.....guess we're too far south for maple syrup-ing! My only other real alternative for natural sugar is honey...and I'm having a hard time getting over my kind'a fear of bees. Good luck with your syrup season.
ReplyDeletePS - Have you tried asking any banks or other places that have bottled water? I just found out from a friend that one of the local banks has water delivered, but not in the big jugs, but individual gallon containers, then just pour the water into the dispensing thingies....then THROW away the perfectly CLEAN water jugs OUT!!
My grandfather planted our sugar bush (maple grove) 80 some years ago. I am very grateful for it. When I was really broke and couldn't afford much maple sugar was the free treat that we ate when we were feeling down. :-) That is such a great idea about the bank! I never thought of asking them. I ask all the local resteraunts and cafes but everyone taps trees around here and all their milk jugs were spoken for. Thanks for the idea.
DeleteMerry Tapping!!! I hope your harvest is phenominal...
ReplyDeleteIf you were here I could throw a few jugs your way for sure. :) Mmmmm...I bet your syrup is incredibly delicious.
Radiant Blessings To You!
Thank you so much. See, you have to make a trade; your gallon jugs for a pint of syrup. That's what most of my friends do and since I love maple season I'll do it happily. lol
DeleteYou'll have to come taste this syrup some time. We're done by the beginning of April but some of the fun is sitting around the evaporator, drinking sap tea and talking woodsmoke, as my aunt use to call it.
I just love your wood stove for boiling sap. It reminds me of an old log home I lived in for a couple years in Wyoming that was heated by a drum that looked just like that. It's truly the warmest house I've ever lived in, and that stove was its only source of heat. Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteCharade, I love the oil drum stoves. I have one in an old pole shed in the far back pasture. We put it in when I had a silly horse that got tangled in a fence. I had to spend almost two weeks with her in the back field in winter until she recovered enough for me to lead her home. I made my then husband drag that stove out to the pole shed so I could stay warm. It is amazing how warm they are, though I would get mine so hot it would glow. lol
DeleteThank you for your comment, it brought back memories.
Oh how wonderful to have maples! Nice to meet you and I'm looking forward to following your postings!
ReplyDeleteWarm wishes from Kansas!
Thank you so much, Poppy, and I'll send you some warm wishes back from Wisconsin. :-)
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