A colleague of mine is starting the hobby of maple sugaring. He enlisted the help of my boys, and Kayla this past week. Kayla usually substituted for Kota who was lifeguarding.
They tapped trees and bagged them. Then collected and hauled sap. I got to take some photos.
Boiling the sap down to get the liquid amber. Kyle loves maple syrup--the real stuff. He likes to drink it. You know a ounce or two at at time.
We always buy some every year Pure Ohio Maple Syrup (or Michigan, if we're there). This year Kyle got to work for some. It was fun for him, it's fun for my colleague Jim too. Kyle said this was the best syrup he's ever tasted. (maybe because he had some time invested in it) I hope this love story (Kyle's sugar love) wasn't too sappy for ya!
I wondered if this would be a good year for sap. Now that I see Kyle is helping and he's the sappiest guy I know, it should be a bumper crop! The Malabar maple syrup festival is next weekend and the weekend after. I can't believe it's here already! The bags aren't as quaint as the buckets, but just as effective I guess!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I've ever tasted the "real thing." Log Cabin and Aunt Jemimah are about the extent of my maple syrup experience. I have a feeling I'm really missing something!
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My husband and I are fans of real maple syrup. A coworker of his brought us two cute bottles (in the shape of maple leaves) from Vermont of the best syrup a couple years ago. Now I splurge and buy the good stuff! How fun to actually be there to participate in the process!
ReplyDeleteWe love the "real" maple syrup too. It's good on so many things! Fun post watching it be made.
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to do this - gather sap and be a part of the cooking down process. Thanks for giving me a taste here. I am a bit disappointed that plastic has replaced buckets. :-)
ReplyDeleteFun! And yum!
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