We have moved beyond the “tapping sap” stage to the “big boil”.
Dianna & Michael are in the midst of their 2011 maple syrup season and had their “big boil” on two separate days this year. I won’t go into the details because Dianna will be writing up a recap of this year’s antics in a post to come within the next two weeks and I don’t wanna steal her thunder (honestly, I don’t know any details – I’m just a spectator).
But what I will do is entertain your eyes with a few pictures from my very brief visit during the second 4, 8, 10, 12+ hour boil of the season, yesterday around 5pm. They started around 7am. My stay was brief because my 26 month old sidekick, Miles Jae, was with me and frankly, this event is not toddler-proof; nor should it be. Dianna was kind enough to entertain Miles (chase him around while he wielded sticks, walked on snow banks and became obsessed with her dog Kate) while I got some quick shots of the excitement sloooooooooooooooooooooooooowly unfolding at their urban homestead.
Drumroll please…….
As a reminder; many sugarhouses all over New York State are having “open house celebrations” where you can view the different stages of maple syrup production. The list of local sugarhouses, close to the Capital Region are in yesterday’s {weekend reading} local edition!
That is seriously the coolest thing ever.
I know right?! This process keeps getting cooler & cooler…
Wow, I am so in love with this post and the other maple syrupping ones… I just went back and checked them all
I am so mesmerized by the idea of making your own maple syrup and to see it being done in a town/city setting is so awesome!
I am really glad to see this!! Whenever we go to sugarhouses around here I am amazed at the complexity (or so it seems to me) of the evaporators. I want to be able to boil my own down on a simpler gadget.
our fire place is about as simple as it gets. And if you find a sheet metal guy who can do food grade solder, a simple tub to sit on top of a bunch of concrete blocks is really not all that expensive. Go for it. We’ll do a post at the end of this week with some photos of constructing the fire place.