Transforming Sweetness

“There are two spiritual dangers of not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from a furnace.” Aldo Leopold. Good Oak, A Sand County Almanac.

This quote spoke to me while I was in the sugar house this week. After all, we are making delicious syrup for people’s breakfast and we are making it with a wood fire. It is so fulfilling – all that work in the woods and sugar house - to transform sap in a sustainable way.

We’re Boiling

We were lucky to have a couple days of running sap at the beginning of the season that helped us get the kinks out. No matter how long you’ve boiling, the first boil is always a bit stressful. Things forgotten were few and we were soon humming like a well oiled machine! Which is a good thing, because we really needed to be well oiled this week.

The sap started flowing mid-day on Monday and hasn’t stopped since. We have made 350 gallons of syrup this week, working round the clock. The taste of the syrup that we pour off the evaporator puts a smile on all our faces and makes all the hard work worthwhile.

Kim has posted a series of videos on Instagram and Facebook that chronicle the journey of sap being transformed into syrup. Check them out, you’ll never think about syrup the same way again. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup and there are a lot of steps in between the collecting and the boiling. If you are syrup-curious, these videos will answer most of your questions.

Juneau checks to see if the syrup is ready to be poured off because that's what the best Sugarbush Supervisors do.

They’re all Good Dogs

We would never think to criticize anyone in the maple industry, BUT…Juneau did not win the Sugarbush Supervisor competition. It’s pawsible there were cuter dogs, but we doubt it. Still she was in the top 10 and that’s pretty good for being on the job for less than a year. Juneau is undeterred and still keeping an eye on all that happening around the farm. Thanks to all of you who voted for her and thanks to the folks at Leader for putting on such a fun contest.

First Boil - Steam is rising from the sugar house on the first boil of 2021.  The syrup tasted so good!