Syrup

Finally, the sap did come.  After march was just a memory, after all the helpful visitors had left my mom's house, the sap ran for three days straight.  By the weekend Mom had collected enough to start boiling, but we were down to the skeleton crew of just me, Mom, and the kids.  Well, we figured, its now or never.

Boiling was really my Dad's domain, he was the sugarmaster in charge of the evaporator's systems and gauges...everyone else and especially my Mom, helped out... But we weren't running the show, Dad was.  So I can say with certainty that we were a bit intimidated on Saturday morning as we ran through the checklist of everything we'd need to do to boil down the sap.  Luckily my Dad, like many sugar makers, kept meticulous notes, and luckily my Mom read all those entries in his journal over the winter.  We fired up the evaporator.  Wood, wood, more wood...every 7 minutes...watch the float valve, monitor the stack temp, sap levels inside and out in the tanks.  We boiled all morning and into the afternoon, taking turns to spell each other for bathroom breaks, to feed ourselves or the kids, or retrieve things from the house.  The kids ran around on the driveway most of the day, chasing the dogs and helping occasionally with keeping wood splits stacked by the arch.

By mid-afternoon, the hydrometer indicated that we were ready to draw off the first syrup.  It was less than a gallon on that first draw off, but I don't think I've ever been prouder of anything I have helped produce, with the possible exception of my beautiful kiddos.  With Dad gone, and taking a year off from sugaring, then converting the whole sugarbush to tubing last summer, and this terrible spring weather, the odds have certainly been stacked against that syrup ever happening.  But we did it, and Mom and I stopped what we were doing for a few seconds to high five and appreciate the moment.  We even got out the last of Dad's sugar house cigars, and though we didn't light it - neither of us like the taste- we chewed on it and posed for a few photos while boiling.

Drawing off syrup!

All told, we made just over 2 gallons of syrup that day of boiling, which we bottled as pints.  I don't know if Mom will get another sap run before the season is over or not, but even if she doesn't, I'm calling this a success.  And I'm going to savor every last drop of my pints this year, in a different sort of way than before.

Moths are out already

Aiden graded it at Medium Amber