Got SAP?

We were blessed with an unseasonably warm February with very little snow. Pretty sure this is the earliest we have ever tapped but I begged and pleaded with Maine Man to place some taps…..and he did!  Last week they all ventured out to fulfill my wishes while I was at work.  MM was even sweet enough to take a few pictures for me.  He’s a keeper I tell you!

This year they put out a total of 12 taps.  Last year we put up a little over 5 gallons of maple syrup and to date we have 3 quarts left.  Much of it we consumed ourselves but we did give some away to friends & family.

This is our 4th year harvesting sap.  If you care to read back on our previous experiences just click here on the years….2009, 2010, 2011.

Flower Girl much prefers real maple syrup over the store bought nastiness high fructose syrup. Country Boy will go first for the store bought if it is available.  Fortunately, the supermarket hasn’t been stocking it as of lately .  So there is only one option and I’ve yet to hear him complain.

Unfortunately, the wonderful warm weather we had been experiencing has changed and we are back to winter.  With that said, sap is not running.  It is the warm days and cool nights that keep the sap flowing.  We’ve only boiled down 3-4 gallons of sap on the wood cook stove which was unintentionally overcooked which means it turned to sugar…..OOPS!  No worries, it was not wasted.  Maple sugar + vanilla creamer = the BEST coffee ever!

P.S. For those of you that did not know this,  40 gallons of sap = 1 gallon of maple syrup