Maple Syrup

Spring, 2010

Finishing off the Maple Syrup

After having done the majority of the boiling outdoors, we still did the final finishing of the maple syrup indoors. We drained the boiled down sap from the evaporating pan into a pot and used a thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. The syrup is done at 4 degrees Celcius above boiling. One of our lessons learned this year is to check the thermometer for the temperature at which water boils. For although you'd think it was 100 degrees celcius, our thermometer read 98. So we probably boiled our sap a tad too long this year. This doesn't matter so much in terms of taste (in fact it probably improves taste) but it makes the syrup more susceptible to crystallizing.

Generally the syrup is filtered using a wool or orlon filter but because the season started earlier than we had anticipated, we didn't have time to order a filter. So with a wool blanket that we were able to use which we just rinsed out with hot water after each round. We had lots of maple syrup containers saved up and used regular canning jars to store the rest. In total we ended up with about X L... which probably doesn't sound like much for all the effort but it was worth it. We have enough maple syrup to last us the year and were able to share some with family as well. And most importantly we had a blast doing it and were able to share some of the fun with friends and family!

The last bit of boiling is done inside with a close eye on the thermometer.

Lots of little bubbles mean it's getting close.
We check the consistency with a spatula but aren't sure what 'sheeting' is supposed to look like.

 
Once the syrup is done, we filter it through a wool blanket.

 
Mmmmmm, the kids don't mind helping with this sort of clean-up!

Not bad for a good day's work, eh?! ;-)

 
It's not pee in the snow... it's Rubby's attempt at taffy on snow!

Our 2010 maple syrup production.