Boil it Down!

We made maple syrup today!  This afternoon Andy found 5 or 6 gallons of sap in the buckets and decided that was enough to make syrup.  Here's what the sap looked like when he and Gareth poured it in the pan:

He boiled it for two or three hours over a wood fire.  The wood was a little wet, so it did get kind of smoky.  After that time, the pan looked like this:

This stage was signaled by comments such as, "Hey, it really did turn brown!" and "How do we tell when it's done?"  At about this time, Andy came in for a pat of butter to throw on the pan when it boiled up too high.  The butter breaks the surface the tension, and the bubbles go back down.  (In Sugaring, the picture book by Jessie Haas, Nora flicks cream on the bubbles to make them go down.) 

Now came the tricky part.  Supposedly the syrup "sheets" when it's done: it drips off a spatula in sheets.  Or, supposedly, you can use a hydrometer to tell the same thing.  But we couldn't figure out how to use the hydrometer, especially with our shallow pan.  So we went with the sheeting technique instead.

(I say "we" but really, by this point Gareth had decided he was more interested in robots than syrup and wanted to come in, Katydid and Farmerboy were both sick and couldn't go outside in the first place, and I was playing musical babies trying to get them both to a)stay asleep, and b)sleep at the same time.  So "we" here means "Andy".)

The syrup was done while I was rocking Pop, and then apparently Andy had the realization that he was not prepared to get it out of the pan.  He came rushing in for receptacles, oven mitts, and ladles.  As soon as I could put Pop down, I ran out to help him.

Here's a picture of the finished product:

It's a little dark (I'm not sure we got it out in time) and a little smoky-tasting from all the woodsmoke, but that first cup of warm syrup still tasted pretty good! 

And what did we have for dinner tonight?  Well, pancakes, of course!

Comments

[Jennifer]

Yay! How fun! It's just like Little House.

[Theresa]

Wonderful, wonderful!!!!I am so impressed!

[Cheryl]

That's so cool!

[Steph]

What a terrific activity! It looks like it turned out great.

http://steph-roomofmyown.blogspot.com/

[Dawn]

Awesome!!! I can't wait to show the boys in the morning! :)

[Kira]

That was cool! Great post!

[Dana]

That is so neat!!! Thanks for sharing!