In an effort to both do all the Vermont things we can before we move this summer--and get in some organized nature study--we set off for a visit to the nearby Sugarbush Farm last week so we could see where all of our delicious maple syrup comes from. Well, it currently comes from the Sugarbush Farm because we bought some there to support the local farmer and all that--before it came from wherever the TrueValue hardware store got their amazingly reasonably priced gallon jugs from.
We go through a lot of maple syrup here.
It's the healthy sugar.
Stop judging me.
They weren't actually making the syrup the day we were at the farm because apparently making maple syrup is a more fly by the seat of your pants endeavor than I had imagined. We did get to see the sugar house though, even if it wasn't in operation, and we got to walk around and check out the crazy amount of lines they had up emptying the sap into giant barrels. I had always imagining maple sap to be something akin to pine sap but that couldn't be further from the truth. Maple sap is basically sugar water, which is why you have to boil it outside because most all of it evaporates away and it would be a disaster in your kitchen.
We got to learn all about that when a friend turned up at our house with about a gallon and a half of sap that she tapped from one of the trees on campus. Obviously Chris took this great good fortune as a sign from above that we should learn how to make maple syrup right that second.
And so he did.
Luckily, that also meant that he needed to finally burn the Christmas tree that has been residing in our fire pit since before Candlemas. At the last minute he decided not to set the thing ablaze in it's entirety, though the glimmer in his eyes told of his burning desire to do so (see what I did there?). Instead, he very responsibly chopped it into three pieces first. I think this was a wise choice judging from the raging inferno he had going from just the top section of the tree. I'm not sure our Adirondack chairs would have survived the whole tree going up at once. Certainly the fire department would have hastened over when they saw the flames shoot up over the houses in between our home and their building.
The actual making of the maple syrup was much less eventful and by the end of the process we went from a gallon and a half of sap to a teeny tiny little jam jar of syrup. If we were actually going to live in Vermont for any length of time we would definitely need to have a large number of sugar maples on our property because making your own maple syrup is just about the most satisfying way you can welcome in spring. I'm so glad we got to try it for ourselves.