Sweet Sunday Syrup

Pete will be today's
guest blogger

With 2 sunny days we had a great sap run on 9 trees,  producing 10 gallons of sap.  Without more storage buckets it's time to cook it off.   Of course it started to sleet and rain so the umbrella was deployed.

The cinder block fire pit.

Our simple fire pit and inexpensive pots do the job.  It takes 35 to 40 parts of sap to produce 1 part of syrup so wood is cheap fuel to use.

Two filtering processes are used, the primary filter for the virgin sap out of the sap buckets, and the secondary felt filter for the almost
ready syrup.

The sap is boiling.

Pots are filled and put on the grill.  The big pot is the primary boiler pot and the others are for progressively concentrated sap.  Sap out of the tree looks and tastes like water, with the tiniest bit of sweetness to it.  As the sap is rendered down it caramelizes and gets a syrup color.  It takes a lot of energy to boil down the sap.  Commercial producers boil it off in a vacuum so it boils at lower temperatures with less energy required.

Despite the weather
differences, this
looks familiar

Retail maple syrup commands $0.40 to $1 an ounce.  Not up to par with illegal drug revenue wise, but a large operation either collecting sap and selling it, or rendering it to syrup with large scale equipment can fetch a decent profit.
Our 10 gallons of sap got us 2.5 pints of grade A syrup. That's 3.125% of the sap.  Retail this is $20 to $40 gross revenue.  We are not rich but home made maple syrup gifts will go along way with the families.   Who wants some?  The run will go for a few weeks so we should end up rich in syrup for the year.

Breaking Bad

In the last episodes of Breaking Bad they netted $1.3 million for a couple pounds of pure meth.  Goes to the point of the underground economy doing so well.  If only maple syrup had some rare trait to make it so valuable.  We rest well knowing we do an honest cook off of legal food.

The last step over the fire before felt filtering and going inside to finish it off.

Felt filtering.

You may remember our
stove - the Savory Centre.

Finishing off the syrup
in the Savory Centre

A final cook down of 50%, check with the baume gauge to 32 to 35
and we're good to go.

Checking the specific
gravity with baume gauge.

The Final Results -
5 CUPS of SYRUP!  

      The Final Product

Asher, Maddie, and Gracie helped lick the pan, but want more.

Tomorrow We're Cooking

Pete prepares to cook.

Breaking Bad - AMC photo

I got home from doing some errands today when Pete announced, "I've got enough stuff, so tomorrow we're cookin."  I think I have heard this line a few times on one of my favorite television shows, Breaking Bad. The show is about a chemistry teacher, strapped for cash, who turns to cooking meth and eventually becomes a drug kingpin.  Check it out on AMC Breaking Bad.



No, trying to survive in the Northwoods has not turned us into meth heads - we're maple heads, or perhaps, mape heads.  We have enough sap to boil down and make maple syrup. Watch out Vermont.

"Is there enough yet?"

Pete tapped about 8 sugar maple trees last weekend and the sap has been flowing off and on all week. Jere gave us a beginner's kit for Christmas complete with the taps, sap saks, a hydrometer and a little book.

Sap Saks in the Woods

Pete made one batch earlier this week and the product (sorry, I'm still in a Breaking Bad frame of mind) was great. Tomorrow I'll get to see how it's done.

This is where you cook.

What are we waiting for?
Let's get cookin!

Stay tuned until tomorrow when we'll be . . .

Breaking Sweet