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sugartime

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

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Freezing nights and daytime temps around 50 are perfect for making maple sugaring here in New England.

So yesterday I collected five gallons from two of my trees, and slowly boiled it for around 24 hours.

This afternoon it was finally evaporated enough to boil into syrup and sugar candy. Five gallons = one pint syrup. No kidding.

But soooooo good.
Tom
 
Bugeye58 said:
We used to boil it in an old 200 gallon stock tank. Over a hardwood fire, right in the woods. Sugar Snow!! Yummy!!!!
Jeff
Click to expand...

People tend to gag when I talk about it but maple syrup and pickles are a long tradition and are a great combination. Use sour pickles and eat the stuff with a cake doughnut (like a Dunkin' "Plain Stick".)

But snow - yessir!
 
This is something that few people my age (who I am not related to) have had the joy to do.

My Grandpa had a woods full of sugar maples and a sugar house in West Michigan. We used to go up to his farm this time of year, go out with a tractor and wagon and collect the buckets full of sap, and bring them to the sugar house.

There, Grandpa, my Dad and my uncles would chop wood, keep the boiler stoked and boil down the sap to syrup and sugar. My cousin's and my job (we were from 6 to about 12) was to take the chopped wood from the pile to the boiler...and check taste. As we got older, we would do other things as well. Grandpa had one of those big boilers with compartments where as the sap boiled down, it would go down the line to different compartments, so you could always add sap on the other end.

Eventually, one of my uncles installed tubing and a central collection vat in the woods- that made things easier (though a bit less traditional). the syrup tasted just as good.

Today, one of my cousins carries on with the sugaring, but on a smaller scale. Few kids got this kind of experience in the '70s and '80s like I did and fewer still in 2007. Mores the pity; those were good times.
 
Grandad did sugar cane syrup/molasses when I was young...he used a mule tied to the press & I got to ride around in circles as long as I wanted!!
 
We've done the Maple Syrup thing here in Ontario for as long as I can remember. With eight kids, it was a family affair. Those days are gone for most farms but now we have places that put on displays and then serve a pancake breakfast for the price of $3 a person. As the kids are on Spring Break here, we will venture out this weekend and indulge. Do they not do this in Michigan? This is just too good to miss. Dave
 
Wow. Hadn't thought of this in years. Paternal grand-dad would have his four grandkids as the "wood ferrets" to keep the fire up. The "reward" was meted out over MONTHS! Much begging involved, too. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
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