As a tradition, we make every effort to go to Spirit, WI (where Jesse grew up) for
sap season. Here are a few photos detailing the process for those of you like me who thought maple syrup runs out of the tree.
This is Jesse's brother Nathanael drilling a hole in the maple tree. Apparently any maple will do, but some producer sweeter sap and some produce more sap than others.
This is Jesse tapping a spout into the tree. Next he will hang a container to collect it.
The guys collected the sap in the evening and poured it into a big cooking "pot." Some days the containers were overflowing and on other days there was only a little sap. I learned that sap runs best on warm, sunny days when the temperature got below freezing the night before.
James is getting his first taste of sap. He liked it. It tastes like slightly sweet water - delicious. It makes great hot chocolate and coffee. (Notice the gigantic bruise on his cheek. Pour boy - fell off a ride on tractor the first day we arrived.)
Jesse is pouring the sap into the "pot." They cooked it overnight over an open fire. It took a good 10 hours of simmering to become syrup. You need 30-40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup.
But it's worth the work. It's hard to match the flavor of pure maple syrup on pancakes - especially if you grew up on it.
And this year we poured the syrup of fresh snow. A maple flavored snow cone. We remembered this from
Little House in the Big Woods. Really delicious - but filling. We all took too much snow and were very full. We didn't want to waste the syrup.
James' first really short hair cut.
Enjoying a book with Grampa.
This is Jesse tapping a spout into the tree. Next he will hang a container to collect it.
The guys collected the sap in the evening and poured it into a big cooking "pot." Some days the containers were overflowing and on other days there was only a little sap. I learned that sap runs best on warm, sunny days when the temperature got below freezing the night before.
James is getting his first taste of sap. He liked it. It tastes like slightly sweet water - delicious. It makes great hot chocolate and coffee. (Notice the gigantic bruise on his cheek. Pour boy - fell off a ride on tractor the first day we arrived.)
Jesse is pouring the sap into the "pot." They cooked it overnight over an open fire. It took a good 10 hours of simmering to become syrup. You need 30-40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup.
But it's worth the work. It's hard to match the flavor of pure maple syrup on pancakes - especially if you grew up on it.
