Tuesday, April 2, 2013

A Sappy Story

It was Maple Syrup month in Maine and syrup producers have welcomed visitors to their farms to observe the process.

The art of producing syrup from maples is an iconic New England pastime.

Imagine trudging through the snow  into the woods of pines and maples to check your buckets for the clear sap.  The heavy buckets are then lugged to the Sugarhouse where an evaporator boils the syrup transforming it into syrup.  As the steam escapes from the boiling liquid the sap becomes concentrated yielding high sugar content.  Wood is constantly fed into the evaporator to maintain steady heat.


It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.  That's a lot of lugging of heavy buckets.

Today most syrup producers use a tubing system that operate as a vacuum system.  This tubing suctions sap and the tubes are connected to a stainless steel tank.



On a good day the sap will run a gallon a minute.  The best time for sugaring is when daytime temperatures reach 32 degrees and night temps go below 32.  The season runs from mid February through March.

 

Now I'm in the mood for pancakes - with maple syrup of course.


Linking to Tuesday Muse at A Rural Journal and Walk and Click Wednesday.

12 comments:

  1. Syrup just doesn't hold that magic draw for me like it used to. Probably because we went with a more watery 'sugar free' long ago. That and the fact that pancakes seem to be only made on special occasions. Perhaps they started being only on special occasions when we went sugar free. chicken or the egg.

    The bucket system is so much more romantic than the tubes - but then again, if it helps keep the costs reasonable, I guess romance will have to set aside for Valentines Day.

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  2. What a fun post. I remember the bucket system ... nostalgia!

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  3. Very interesting shots!

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  4. Nothing better than a sappy story! :-) I learned a lot. This was interesting!

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  5. great photos and story too! Looks like a beautiful place. We enjoyed maple syrup on our pancakes Sunday - so good!

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  6. Great shots of the maple syrup treat for WAC ~ beautiful ^_^

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  7. Now I'm in the mood for pancakes, also! There is nothing quite like REAL maple syrup. Once I tried it, I never went back to the other stuff.

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  8. We had similar thoughts this week about maple syrup. My dad use to have his own Sugar Shack, I miss him syrup. Visiting from Walk and Click

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  9. this looks very familiar... beautiful images!

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  10. Thanks for sharing. Here on the west coast we don't get to see that. It is on my list of things I want to see.

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  11. Thanks for the lesson on maple syrup gathering, Stephanie. Love your photo-documentary. Thanks for sharing in Walk and Click Wednesday!

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