You know how there are lots of things that you dream of perhaps doing someday, but never really think you'll do? (Well, at least there are many things I dream of doing that I don't/can't do. But perhaps you do lots of sewing and baking and cool crafts with your kids and things like that.) Ha! One of those actually happened today. A few days ago, Terri (age 10) and I were talking about maple syrup. For some reason, I remembered that it was about the right time of year to tap the trees. After that Terri took over. She heard her grandparents used to tap their maple trees and gave them a phone call. Sure enough, they had some real taps around, and pretty soon we had three taps in our very large tree with milk jugs poised to collect the sap.
We collected a few little batches over the last few days and had our first finger-licking taste of maple syrup last night. So today we were amazed to find nearly a gallon of sap waiting for us when we returned from our afternoon activities. Here's the picture (complete with messy counter) to prove it. :)
It doesn't look like much in our enormous spaghetti pot, but this is now simmering on the stove and will theoretically make about a quart of maple syrup. UPDATE: Um, scratch that, it's a ratio of 40:1, not 4:1.
Now if only I can find my copy of Miracles on Maple Hill so I can read it aloud to the kids. :) If I can't make it that far, I can at least pull Little House in the Big Woods (from which my entire body of knowledge regarding maple syrupping comes from) out to read.
2 comments:
Ok so this is obviously an old post...but I linked to your blog through a series of links today and it has been my bit of joy for the day. I was intrigued to find out that you, too live in the great state of Wisconsin. And even more tickled to read of the maple syrup project. Growing up in northern WI we made maple syrup (my folks tap 200+ trees). Anyway, I'll be following your blog from here on out. Thanks for the bit of joy especially on another cold winter day.
Thanks - I'm glad you dropped by! I'm very interested in taking a look at your blog too!
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