Boiling

It has been a strange year for maple syrup so far. It has been unusually warm here and hasn't been freezing at night, so with that said we really haven't done yet. On Friday we enjoyed spending the day in the sugar shack boiling! I thought you might enjoy to see a few pictures of our day!! Hope you enjoy them!

 Filling the fire is an all day job! Talk about a hot.....

 Our little helper!

 She fills the cart and daddy and mommy empty it...

 While we wait for the sap to boil down we get our school work done. Who says you need to sit at a desk! The sugar shack works just as well!!

 BBQ Pork is cooking on our cook stove for dinner!! 

 Taking a break watching the temperature!

 We still have a little ways to go! Syrup is finished at 7 degrees over the boiling point of water! (see more homeschooling!)

 I have a feeling that this wood won't last the whole season.... 

 We make a lot of memories as a family!

 Ready for a drawl!!

 This is what our front pan looks like!

 Taking off the finished product! It will be run through 2 filters into the canner. I didn't think to get any pictures of that step though... SORRY...

 We always check each batch of syrup on the hydrometer! We want to make sure it has the right density every time!

just another picture of what we spend most of our day doing! Hope you enjoyed these!! 

THESE PICTURES OF THE PROPERTY OF AROUND THE FARM. PLEASE ENJOY, BUT DO NOT TAKE.

Tapping

It's that time of the year again, we are tapping!!!! I thought you might like to see a few of the pictures from today!

  we got most of our buckets out today! Hopefully we will be able to finish them up tomorrow and then on to all of the main lines on Monday!

All pictures are property of Around the Farm.

A little sticky....

We have still been busy in the sugar shack.  I thought I should take a little break while my guys are gathering to quickly post on here again!  Looks like we are going to be putting in another late night tonight.  The other night we boiled till 11pm so that my hubby could take off with the 2 oldest children to go to a vet meeting.
I figured I should start today by kind of explaining when to tap the trees and stuff like that!!  What is takes for the sap to run is warm days (above freezing) and cold nights (below freezing).  So, we kind of watch the weather forecast and when we see it looks like it is going to be warm we start to tap.  The sap will continue to run as long as the weather is in our favor (nice days and cold nights).  When the trees start to bud and split we are all through with the season.  At that point the sap will taste bitter instead of being sweet.  When we start out each year tapping the sugar content in the sap is 2 1/2 to 3 percent sugar and as the season progresses it drops down to around 1.  Which means we have to boil the sap a lot longer to get the right sugar content in our finished syrup.
Here are a few new pictures of us out boiling on Wednesday.  Hope you are enjoy this spring weather~

Drawing off more finished syrup

hanging out playing cards with Bumpa

It is always fun having friends come over!!

Elli loves this nice weather to be able to play outside while we boil!!

even Brownie is enjoying the warm weather!

We are all loving the warmer weather, but I think the ducks are the only ones enjoying all of  the water puddles~

Syrup 2012

Here are some more pictures of us doing syrup today.  Hope you enjoy seeing them!

Me filling the fire!

watching the temperature of the syrup

drawing off the finished syrup!

busy canning the syrup!

capping them for Abby

Taking a little break!

watching the tank to shut off the pump when it is full

dinner time!

Sweet times

We are back in the sugar shack again!  We started tapping the trees last week, and started up the old evaporator this afternoon!!  It is smelling sweet around here now!!  I thought you might like to see some pictures of us getting it going today!  If it weren't so windy out I would have gotten pictures of the girls gathering the sap today.  I guess they will have to be in another post!

our wood supply for this years season~

hooking up the evaporator

Eliza getting the fire going...

Miranda warming up on the cook stove out in the sugar shack

the old cook stove!

ahhh smell that sweetness!

I think it is time to go and enjoy some maple syrup on pancakes, or on ice cream..... Mmmmmmm

Maple Syrup

This has been our 15th year of doing maple syrup!  I can't believe that we have been in the business that long!  Today when we were out gathering and pulling buckets I took a few pictures!  Thought you might like to see some of what goes into making syrup!

 dumping the sap into a tank to take back to the sugar shack!

this is what a tree looks like when it is tapped! 

Look there is sap in here mom!

everyone helps out!

I will try and take some pictures of the main lines and evapator later!