Maple Sugaring

Maple sugaring commenced early this year at HollyHedge. After having taken a year off to make sure the trees were healthy, we, quite coincidentally, decided to start when we were almost out of syrup, literally down to the last bottle from two years ago. We had also been taking note of the temperature dipping below freezing at night & staying above freezing during the day... ideal conditions for collecting.

So on a sunny February afternoon, we set forth with our bundle of tools...

...and for three weeks thereafter collected the sap daily. Though the sap flow started off slowly, day-time temperatures climbed and yields increased. Sap flow peaked in late February with a steady run that was producing around 10 gallons of sap a day from our 8 trees. While this video surely doesn't capture the excitement we felt during our daily collections ("How much will there be today?!"), it does show the slow but steady way trees deliver their sap.

After a little over 3 weeks, we had collected a total of 84 gallons of crystal clear sap.

It was time to get cooking but this time, with all the knowledge we had gained from two years before. We chose a quiet day and took advantage of the big range that was usually used for feeding hungry guests. With 6 burners and two LARGE shallow pots, we were evaporating faster than we could have imagined, transforming crystal clear sap into brilliant gold syrup.

Although still a lengthy process, we had cut cooking time down by more than half & ended up with a beautiful reward for our efforts, a subtle, fragrant, soul-warming maple syrup.

Then time for the final test, pancakes.

Maple sugaring is a tradition available to few geographical ranges where sugar maples grow. While this is only our second time maple sugaring, much joy was taken by the simple process of repeating what can be an annual event, a seasonal joy only available during a time when it seems spring will never come.