Monday, March 29, 2010

Maple Sugaring

This year we are trying our hand at maple sugaring. We received all of the spickets, buckets and instruction from Sam's Dad and Sarah, as a very nice Christmas gift.
As you can see, these photos were taken back in February, as these are our first shots of this adventure. We have been making maple syrup ever since. Here the bucket is hanging on a spicket that has been drilled into the tree. Clear maple sap pours out in the the bucket.


Sam, drilling into one of the trees


While out back, the girls discovered some good stuff to climb on.



Boiling down the maple sugar.
It takes a whole day of boiling to cook it down to the consistency of maple syrup.


The very first batch of syrup. As you can see, it takes ALOT of maple sap to make syrup. You boil off 90% of the water, and the last 10% is a super sweet sugary delight!


Of course we needed to make some waffles to sample with. Delicious!