March 15th, 2010 | 
Author: Spring has come to the homestead and with it the first harvest crop. Maple syrup!! We only have 2 maple trees on our property, but that yummy sap isn’t going to waste.
If you’ve been following our video homestead series, you’ll know that making maple syrup was our first video.
When the temperatures started to rise we headed out to tap the trees. After the first day we had collected about 2 gallons of sap. It was strained and set in a large pot on medium heat to evaporate. When it was almost finished dh transferred it to a small pot. This is were the “trouble” started. We got busy and forgot it was cooking… The sap came to a boil, when I spotted this I turned it off, when it cooled it was rock hard in the pot. Hmmm…
Maple Sugar Harvest 2010
Well I thought why not heat it up and pour it out on wax paper. We’ll have maple candy! I turned the temp on low and started to soften it. I stirred it up making sure it wouldn’t burn. But something unexpected happened. As the sap was heating up it started turning to powder in front of my eyes. It was amazing to see! What we were left with was maple sugar! And it is soooo delicious!
I wish all kitchen mistakes could be that good. LOL!
Posted in Homesteading, In the Kitchen | 
Tags: Homesteading, Maple, Maple taffy, MapleSyrup, Sweeteners, Tree
Too cool…it’s amazing how much sap you start out with and then in the end, it’s not very much. I definitely appreciate my maple syrup more…and the amount needed to just give me 1 litre…and not too mention the cost. We use to pay 9.99 for 1 litre and now we pay anywhere from 14.00 to $17.00 for the same size and brand name…it’s crazy!!
Thanks for sharing the video.
@ Connie:
Yes prices have gone up here a lot in the last few years. Last years syrup harvest wasn’t very good…I’m thinking this year might not be either. The weather has warmed so quickly that one of our trees has already stopped producing. It has huge buds already.