kittenmmm's blog post - Sugaring

I have a ton of stuff to do today but I wanted to share a little with you.

We've been having odd weather everywhere but right now we're looking at prime sugaring weather so after church on Sunday I took Wolf to a sugar shack. He's never seen one or been, so I thought it might be interesting for him. For those of you not too sure what I'm talking about we call making maple syrup "sugaring". The weather has to be just right with the nights dipping down into the 20's and 30's and the days warming into the 50's or so.

The sugarers "tap", or drill into, the sugar maples and when the weather is cooperating the sap runs. They collect that sap and boil it down to the consistency of syrup, butter or candy. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. It's a very labor intensive process but it's fascinating and it's been going on for 100's of years.

The sugar shack I took him to is relatively small. Up in Canada and a bit north of me there are some operations that are huge. This one is just a family run place and although they're certainly bigger than some places they are by no means largly commercial.
the evaporator

Sugar shacks are buildings built specifically for this function. They contain the evaporator (where the sap is boiled down), the collection tanks, and generally the packaging tanks. You can almost identify them by sight because the shacks all have what reminds me of a turret...there's a raised area of the roof where the steam escapes. There's usually a chimney for the smoke from the fire as well. Traditionally the evaporator burns wood. So, as you look at one operating, you can see a large cloud of steam and a smaller stream of smoke coming from the roof. The best part is the smell...as the sap evaporates, the smell of the steam gets stronger, until all you can smell in the air is maple. What a delight!



Needless to say the tour was fun and we had to leave with some butter(cream) and sugar. I've always got a jug of maple syrup in the fridge so that wasn't a problem. I also got to prove that Mrs. Butterworth is NOT syrup. For those who haven't had the pleasure of real maple syrup you should try it. It's more expensive than the "syrups" on the market but it's well worth it and a little goes a long way. You can't get much more natural...nothing is added and only water is taken out, it's just maple.

delighting in the sweet taste of maple
kitt xxx