The sun just rising, fire started.
A cool, light breeze will carry the water away.
By sunset, all but the sweetness of maple, gone.
Maple syrup, what many unknowingly believe readily oozes from a Sugar Maple as pitch would ooze from a gash in a pine tree, is actually the final product resulting from the process of sap evaporation. The sap, a clear, water-like liquid collected by the gallons from tapped trees on the first warming days of spring, contains, by volume, less than 5% sugar. By boiling off most of this liquid, through evaporation, the precious syrup is produced—an amber substance, 67% sugar.
Because even the scant amount of sugar in collected sap spoils quickly, we hold just a small gathering tank, pouring from the buckets as they fill on the trees, and keeping it well chilled for the days we wait, preparing to boil. Then, in the yard, the arch is constructed--a structure to support a large evaporating pan and create draft for the fire built beneath it.
From a pile of cinder blocks and stovepipe—voila!
Throughout the day, the fire is tended-- sticks from the yard collected, scrap wood from the year’s odd building projects cleared.
And the steam pours off the surface of the rolling, boiling liquid in the broad, flat pan.
Gallons are added, as the sap boils and boils.
And the gathering tank soon is emptied.
A hint of color now bubbles within,
and the slightest of sweet smells drifts in waves across the yard as the breeze turns it over and over, before taking it away.
Pouring off boiled sap through filterWe must finish this syrup indoors, another day--on stove top, where more control allows better monitoring.
So, for now, in the cold darkness, we pour it carefully off and warm our fingers and toes around the day’s bed of coals.
The warm glow feels good against our faces.
Imagining, someday soon, pancakes.
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