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| When Jack wants some alone time, he goes off and boils some maple sap. |
We’ve collected plenty of maple sap this season and Jack’s started processing it. I bought him his very own pan to use (mostly out of concern that he would somehow melt one of mine). First step: boil off the excess water.
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| He comes in smelling like smoke. It makes me gag but he likes it. Maybe he should have been a firefighter… |
Easier (and less time consuming) said than done. A majority of it is taken care of outside over a fire. Once it gets going, it takes a few hours for it to reduce down to a workable amount in the kitchen.
Eventually, it starts looking a little more golden and begins to taste like maple syrup and less like smokey water. Another few hours on the stove, a few strainings to get out the biggest particles and it’s put into makeshift containers until we use it on something like yogurt waffles. If you’re lucky, you might even be the recipient of some.
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| Almost done! Just needs to be filtered and boiled a bit more. |
The last batch he started was six gallons. And how much syrup do you get out of six gallons, you ask?
