Alohaparenting
01-25-2013, 02:40 AM
Hi! I have been reading and reading on this site, thought I should say hello.
I grew up in Wisconsin and have fond memories of sugaring with friends on back 40s. Now we are out here in Washington state, we have a small 5 acre farm and a gaggle of kids. Last year when we still lived in town, we tapped our first Big Leaf Maple trees, and this year out at our new place, we are blessed to have 4 Big Leaf maples. We put in 8 spiles ( some of the trees are coppiced so each trunk got a spile)
We are sort of flying by the seat of our pants with all of this. We have boiled down three batches so far- and are just under 3/4 a gallon of syrup. We tapped on the 12th of this month, and hit our first rush that weekend and have been collecting between 3-14 gallons a day of maple water -depending on the day. We really did have a good rush there for a few days. I want to think we timed it right, but it was just good luck too. Our goal was to try and boil down one gallon of syrup this season.
Tonight I am learning what niter is :D The sugar sand stuff. We filter when we collect and we filter when we go to boil, and then again as we are pouring into cans-- but I was not using the right kind of filter at all. And I have a lot of sediment. I am reading all the great threads on this.
I may reheat, and refilter and rejar up my 3 batches.
oh! I have been babbling about what we are doing on our farm facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SproutHill and posted some pictures of our pretty trees and all our critters too
We have been bitten with the bug, this year we used bic pens as spiles and heated on our turkey fryer- I know that is not the right way to do it- but it sure got us hooked, next season and next batch we will have learned so much more!
I should have been on here this last weekend when we had our run- when we were getting maple water faster than we could boil, it was very exciting! AND after starting up a new farm- can I tell you how GREAT it feels to have a harvest? To have something to show for our work? Maple syrup is so well timed after winter farming, breaking buckets, hauling frozen manure, feeding dry dairy animals, feeding chickens that are not laying- MAN! So good to have something coming into the house this time of the year. Its not time for gardening yet, it is not kidding season yet, the goats are done milking for the season, it really is a perfect fit to be sugaring.
I grew up in Wisconsin and have fond memories of sugaring with friends on back 40s. Now we are out here in Washington state, we have a small 5 acre farm and a gaggle of kids. Last year when we still lived in town, we tapped our first Big Leaf Maple trees, and this year out at our new place, we are blessed to have 4 Big Leaf maples. We put in 8 spiles ( some of the trees are coppiced so each trunk got a spile)
We are sort of flying by the seat of our pants with all of this. We have boiled down three batches so far- and are just under 3/4 a gallon of syrup. We tapped on the 12th of this month, and hit our first rush that weekend and have been collecting between 3-14 gallons a day of maple water -depending on the day. We really did have a good rush there for a few days. I want to think we timed it right, but it was just good luck too. Our goal was to try and boil down one gallon of syrup this season.
Tonight I am learning what niter is :D The sugar sand stuff. We filter when we collect and we filter when we go to boil, and then again as we are pouring into cans-- but I was not using the right kind of filter at all. And I have a lot of sediment. I am reading all the great threads on this.
I may reheat, and refilter and rejar up my 3 batches.
oh! I have been babbling about what we are doing on our farm facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SproutHill and posted some pictures of our pretty trees and all our critters too
We have been bitten with the bug, this year we used bic pens as spiles and heated on our turkey fryer- I know that is not the right way to do it- but it sure got us hooked, next season and next batch we will have learned so much more!
I should have been on here this last weekend when we had our run- when we were getting maple water faster than we could boil, it was very exciting! AND after starting up a new farm- can I tell you how GREAT it feels to have a harvest? To have something to show for our work? Maple syrup is so well timed after winter farming, breaking buckets, hauling frozen manure, feeding dry dairy animals, feeding chickens that are not laying- MAN! So good to have something coming into the house this time of the year. Its not time for gardening yet, it is not kidding season yet, the goats are done milking for the season, it really is a perfect fit to be sugaring.