OT--A day at the Sugar Shack

[TOOL MAN]

My farm boys call late Friday night, telling me the sugaring season is winding down and that I need to get my arrrrs out there to see the new evaporator. So, with the excitement of a modern-day George Plimpton by 9 am yesterday morning, I'm breaking a sweat (not dragging a whitetail) hauling bucket after bucket of sugar maple "juice" back to the 200 gallon storage tank perched on the back of their pickup.

The weather was perfect the last few days (cold nights with a nice warm-up towards afternoon) and let me tell you, the sap was really flowing!! I had always thought it was more viscous. It's not. In fact, you would think you were collecting nothing but water
and that's not too far from the truth.

For those who have never seen an evaporator, it looks like a combination moonshine still/Enrico Fermi class project all rolled into one!! How the technology has evolved over the years is truly amazing but the basic process hasn't changed much, since the Indians started it many hundreds of years ago. Essentially, you are boiling/steaming off the water content of the sap until it reaches a sugar content of 67% ( hope I got that right). As the water content is reduced, naturally the solution starts to thicken. Simple, though very complex!! The evaporator is a series of sluices and baffles that keep the sap moving/flowing into several different compartments. The final two are where the real magic takes place and the boys were constantly pouring the boiling, syrupy brew into an elongated metal beaker and testing it with a hydrometer. Of course, all of this alchemy takes place over a roaring, wood-fed fire.

You really learn to appreciate the work involved in getting this stuff onto your breakfast table! They told me the ratios vary from early to late season but yesterday it took around 60 gallons of sap to = one gallon of syrup . I only wish I had brought my camera but truthfully there was so much steam, we were using voice commands most of the morning. We shut down @ 4:30 with a total of 3 gallons produced. I urge anyone who has never witnessed this operation to go and experience it for yourself!! To actually take part in a tradition, older than New England itself was very cool. As always, it was another memorable day out at the farm!! Wifey-poo is calling.....my waffles are ready and Aunt Jemima is sitting this one out!!!-----Tool

[Stan Hillis]

Wow! The first pope to make maple syrup?

Stan

[Smokepole Shooter]

Tell ya what, all it takes is one good serving of the real stuff and you swear off Aunt Jamima forever!

[Silvers]

Steve, thanks for bring this up. Sugar time is happening here in PA too.... cold nights, warm days gets the sap to running. This is always a bittersweet time of year for me. Uncle John was my very first hunting mentor and we spent many days small game hunting on his dad's farm. The farm has a large grove of hard maples as we called them on an eastern facing slope, and we usually came through just below on the edge of a field while after rabbits and birds with the dogs. His family's old sugar shack was there complete with a rusty boiler and we often stopped and he reminisced of when he was a kid on the farm.... how his family would sleep in shifts to keep the wood fire just right for the evaporation process. Also how they sold their maple syrup when times were tough and did without themselves. It was a special place for us. Uncle John is now passed and I miss him greatly, especially when I hunt at the farm now owned by the son of one of his brothers, and at sugar time.... both always bring up these wonderful and sad memories. As I sit here writing there's part of an old firebrick from that sugar boiler holding down some papers on the desk.

[jolly bill]

My neighbor around the corner, and whose land backs up to ours, has a maple syrup operation. He has 600 taps which I think would make him a small operator. Last weekend and this weekend was Maple Syrup Weekend in upstate NY so he had his operation open for the public.

I stopped in for my annual visit to replenish our syrup supply. Got a half gallon of medium amber for us and a quart of the same for my sister in law. $28.00 for the half gallon and $16 for a quart. Not sure how that compares with other markets but it sure is good stuff. Hard to beat real maple syrup on a dish of black walnut ice cream. Dam that's good.

Jolly

[TOOL MAN]

Great story Frank!! Sugaring is one of those great family traditions that no doubt evokes heartfelt memories for many.
I can't wait to do it again!!

That sounds like a decent price, Jolly. In my neck of the woods, it's running $65-75 / gallon. -----TOOL

[jolly bill]

Tool,

Gallons were 50 bucks.

[Foxnut]

Its syrup time here is Michigan as well. We've had great wether for it and the buckets all around here are filling up frequently. So much so that some locals are giving some of it away. I appreciate the tutorial that Tool Man provided as my son in law asked yesterday about the process. I knew it was done with evaporators but wasn't sure of the actual process and how much was needed to get a gallon of syrup. My wife and I usually stop in and buy a quart or two from one of the local farms and they will let you watch the process and tour the place. Making apple butter is another past time that brings good memories back. We do it every October with my dad that is now 86 years old. We started doing it about three or four years ago and it has become something that most of my family looks forward to every October! The only problem with that is it interferes with bird hunting and the Michigan bow season!!

[DSizemore]

Brett.....I was fortunate to have received a sample of the apple butter you guys make and it's very good indeed. Not to get too side-tracked here, but your brother also makes a hot mustard sauce that is second to none. I talked him out of four jars at the last OGCA show and it's almost gone already.

With regard to your other post today, you should consider posting a picture of that screamer Wildfowler you have. I doubt too many here have seen one, me included. Since you gave me the tutorial on those guns, I've been paying closer attention to internet listings that simply say " 12 ga Sterlingworth" in hopes of plucking one out of hiding.

[Foxnut]

Dave, if you go through previous post and search under "Fat Bottom Girls" I posted some pics last fall. Regards

[MARSHFELLOW]

Hey, what the heck???.....you guys are holding out on apple butter and HOT MUSTARD???

tjw