The Bovine Bugle

Sap to Syrup--the sugaring has begun!

One of 425 buckets full of sap, just waiting to be boiled down to syrup.

After tapping the trees over the weekend, a couple of cool nights and warm days gave us our first good run of sap. The gathering tub was on the wagon ready to go this morning after all the chores were done. Unfortunately it was a weekday, so the big crew from the weekend was gone.

Karen, my brother, Steve, and I were the gathering crew. It didn't take us long to have a couple of tubs gathered and emptied into the 800-gallon storage tank. The gathering tub holds 150 gallons. Once Dad had some sap stored up he lit the fire in the arch and soon steam was rising out of the sugarhouse.

It took us about 4 hours to gather all 425 buckets. We ended up with about 700 gallons of sap which yielded 13 gallons of fancy syrup. The yield from the first boiling is always low since it takes about 150 gallons of sap just to fill up the pans of the sugar rig.

Dad was done boiling about 8 o'clock and was beat after watching the sugar rig and stoking the fire in the arch for the last 7 hours. He thought he would wait and can the syrup tomorrow. So the sugar season is off to a good start, and hopefully the sweet stuff will flow for a few more weeks.

Left: Dad keeps stoking the fire under the boiler, a process that took 7 hours for this first gathering. Right: The Sugaring Shack from the outside, with sweet smelling steam announcing that sugaring season has begun.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at March 29, 2005 02:52 PM