Every other year, the extended Mallory Clan head off into the bush to tap and collect maple sap to make maple syrup. We do it the old fashioned way where we tap the trees and hang the buckets. When the sap is running everyone is needed to help collect the buckets and pour the sap into the big plastic barrels which we haul in a snow boat behind the snowmobile to the fire. We slowly boil the sap in a huge cast iron kettle for hours. Dan tests to make sure the syrup is ready by tilting a spoon and seeing if the syrup has a tail when it falls to the ground. Then it is panic time and all hands are required to pour the syrup from the kettle through felt cloth and into the bottles and tins. We tap about 40 trees since it takes 40 litres of sap to make one litre of syrup. As a reward, an outdoor breakfast celebration is usually planned with sausage, pancakes, eggs and lots of maple syrup.
No comments:
Post a Comment