Gladwin County

[Run Forest Run!]

J&T that finished syrup is picture perfect! I also love the mood shot of the moon through the trees. Hopefully you aren't freezing to death boiling so late into the night. It's pretty nippy here tonight so I'm glad I finished boiling today at 5:45. While it's only just below freezing, the dampness goes right through your bones tonight. It snowed on and off the entire time I was boiling today.

My batch of near syrup is now filtered and will be getting its final boil tomorrow and then filtered again and bottled. It will be the biggest single batch I've ever made. Couldn't be happier.

Have a great night Jason!

[DonMcJr]

Good looking syrup! You don't have to throw out cloudy sap...Dark syrup doesn't look as dark after you filter it and it tastes good too. The only sap you should throw out is stinky sap! If you try to make all lighter Syrup you're gonna drive yourself crazy it gets darker as the season progresses...

[bakerrunner]

J&T that finished syrup is picture perfect! I also love the mood shot of the moon through the trees. Hopefully you aren't freezing to death boiling so late into the night. It's pretty nippy here tonight so I'm glad I finished boiling today at 5:45. While it's only just below freezing, the dampness goes right through your bones tonight. It snowed on and off the entire time I was boiling today.

My batch of near syrup is now filtered and will be getting its final boil tomorrow and then filtered again and bottled. It will be the biggest single batch I've ever made. Couldn't be happier.

Have a great night Jason!

Great work Karen keep it up. The weather here was really warm today, but it's supposed to get down to 22 tonight! I have the day off tomorrow, so Friday and Saturday I will be boiling steady!

[bakerrunner]

Good looking syrup! You don't have to throw out cloudy sap...Dark syrup doesn't look as dark after you filter it and it tastes good too. The only sap you should throw out is stinky sap! If you try to make all lighter Syrup you're gonna drive yourself crazy it gets darker as the season progresses...

Thanks for the advice Don. I did make quite a bit of dark amber, and I personally like it, because it has such a strong maple flavor. I only tossed the cloudy sap because I was running out of room to store it!!! I felt bad, but I wanted to concentrate on getting the fresh stuff processed. I really need a bigger arch. Last year we hardly got any sap because of the strange weather, so this year we tapped all the trees that were big enough, and we have sap coming out of our ears. I actually sold some raw sap to some friends. I hope things slow down so I can get caught up on my boiling.

[Run Forest Run!]

J&T, I finished and bottled my batch today. I am thrilled. This single batch is more than my total batches for all of 2012! I made 1.02 gallons (3.875 Litres) of a lovely light syrup. I got 38:1 ratio with my sap. Can't complain. No chance here at all to make anything other than light at the moment.

Now I can update the info in my signature!

[bakerrunner]

Great job Karen. We also doubled what we did last year. So far we bottled 2.3 gallons! We have about 50 or so gallons of sap left to go. We pulled our taps today, because of life obligations that will demand our time next week. But I am very happy with our season. Best of luck to you!

Jason

[Run Forest Run!]

You too Jason. Enjoy all that syrup that you two worked so hard for!