The Maple Syrup Run is Done!

After a strange season of maple trees running off and on, we have finally pulled out out spiles, boiled the last of the sap and called her done for the year. With the weather we've had they may still be running, but since our schedules have become packed with other things (namely: cows, chickens and lawn care/indoor planting) we called it quits. The trees ran inconsistently, but really picked up for three days on the weekend, go figure we collected about 300 litres of sap, all which we boiled Friday through to Monday. Sunday was sunny and breezy, so we did our spiles and pails then, rinsing them and air drying them so they don't rust in storage over winter. Our final amount of finished syrup was 18 litres. Last year we had 21 litres but that was more than plenty. Its great fun when its going, but towards the end, you can feel when its time to quit. But the last days of boiling was good opportunity to get back to my knitting. After I finished a row, I knew it was time to add sap to the pans and stoke up the fire. There is a lot of sitting during the boiling, with a quick dash out to the bush to collect sap when its running good. But you cant go too far, because you daresnt burn all your precious hard work! Theres nothing more satisfying than tasting the liquid gold after you've put countless hours into making it!

No batch of maple syrup is the same, the colour always varies throughout the run.