Just about had to change my underwear...gave myself a good ol scare with batch #5...I was using my usual candy therm, it was going up to around 220 as expected...then it PLUMMETED to 215 and stayed there! My first reaction was OMFG now I've made a gorgeous batch of syrup with mercury in it...but then realized that the *faulty* therm was intact. So then I boiled a pot of water (yeah I know I should've done that first) and tested it there and it was definitely boiling below 212.

I dug out the probe thermometer and another candy therm, they both read 225 in the syrup as I expected it to. But having that one therm so wildly off really messed with me. Being in a maple zombie state doesn't help! And I promptly googled 'do modern candy thermometers contain mercury' and was glad to see that then no longer do, usually it's coloured alcohol. So thank gawd for both counts.

Oh and now I have to go get more sap...I just can't bear to dump it.