As promised, we finished sugaring last week, ending at about 8.5 gallons. Doesn’t sound like much, but for us, that was a big deal. That’s about 340 gallons of sap boiled down, and many 10-12 hour days. If not for the labor, this would be a hugely profitable enterprise. As it is, though, it was …
Sitting here in R44 with pour-over and scone, catching up from a long weekend. Quiet start to the day. Now that the winter weather has broken – we hope! – our thoughts and actions are turning toward what the new season is bringing. This week we’ll be winding down sugaring operations; washing and packing up …
Remember I used to say we have water everywhere on this farm? Cuyahoga river, year-round stream, pond, shallow well, deep well, swamp,… and Wednesday, water everywhere but in the house. Our jet pump died, and we were completely without water. Big thanks to Denny Herr and Sons, who came out the next day to trench …
It’s our first time collecting and boiling, but we’ve reached 5 gallons of maple syrup! We are learning so much along the way. It’s amazing the incredible labor and effort that goes into it – collecting wood for the fire, then tapping the trees, collecting the sap, continuously feeding the fire, boiling the sap, getting …
This was an up-and-down week, weather-wise. Some warmer and sunny days, some cold and icy. But we were able to collect and for 2 days boiled enough sap to get 1.75 gallons (we sampled the sap to be about 2%, which, according to the “86 Rule” of thumb means 86/2=43 gallons of sap per gallon …
I’m going to change up this blog format from this point forward, and issue regular Monday updates, Lord willing. They’ll be more of just an update on what happened on the farm in the last week, rather than an essay or short article format. That should make this job easier and hopefully, more consistently done. …
The thermometer said 15 degrees this morning, and I believe it. After an unseasonably warm-ish few days, it feels like winter again. But there’s work to do, so after coffee, I headed outside to stack wood. We have limited wood-processing equipment, and no cut and dried tree to speak of. That will change by next …
