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Post by Chrisnstar on Feb 19, 2005 0:31:15 GMT -5
As the days here have been in the 40s and 50s with night temps below freezing, it occurred to me, in Wisconsin, this would be maple syrup making season! We had a "sugar bush" of about 100 trees, a couple of taps per trees. We hung plastic buckets on the taps and collected the sap in an old deep freezer in the woods. We cooked the sap down in a big, shallow flat pan over a wood fire, then finished it off in a big cast iron kettle over another fire. We made about 12 gallons a year... we were small potatoes, just enough for the family... there were some big commercial sugar bushes around...Jenni are there blue bags hanging on trees in your area?  chris |
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Post by Mary Ann on Feb 19, 2005 7:51:38 GMT -5
I don't know about you, Chris, but I have to have the real thing in the little bottles. No Aunt Jemima or Log Cabin for me! The taste is incredible, and it isn't all fakey thick and nasty like the commercial stuff. I think I usually buy Cary's.
Can you get the real thing in your groceries there? If you can, does it taste anything like home made?
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Post by Chrisnstar on Feb 19, 2005 9:46:58 GMT -5
Yes, we can get the real thing here and I do, but it's not nearly as satisfying as making your own!
And the commercially produced syrup comes from trees that have had formaldehyde tabs put in the holes to keep the tap holes open longer, and it uses vacuum pump systems, with bags and miles of hose from tree to tree. the pump system sucks the sap out of the tree instead of letting it drip out naturally. Good for the bottom line of a producer, but bad for trees. It shortens the life of the trees.
However it's still a whole lot less chemicals than in the nasty syrups at the grocery store that don't even have a smidge of real maple in them!
I just fondly remember making it. It was one of the highlights of the year and signaled the coming end of winter and beginning of spring...
The horses loved it too. We'd give them buckets of the raw sap which has little sugar and lots of minerals in it. The horses would suck that up pretty fast!
It's a 40 to 1 ratio. Takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.
chris
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Post by Newfygirl on Feb 19, 2005 18:36:47 GMT -5
Yum! There are some places in Door County that make syrup the old fashioned way - and boy is it worth the price! Its sooooo good! They are usually small family owned places that have cherry orchards and maple syrup. Nothing better...
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Post by Newfygirl on Feb 19, 2005 18:38:22 GMT -5
Did you ever notice that most commercial brands of "maple syrup" don't even have ANY maple syrup in them??
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