The maple sap is running!

Jon and I have been here for officially 2 weeks now, and I have finally gotten organized and have some beautiful photos to post courtesy of Lisa!

Here is a few snapshots of maple syrup-ing...  The only thing missing is our morning pancakes, which happen frequently in order to take advantage of the delicious-ness we are surrounded by.  There is nothing more comforting than coming in from a cold day outside to the various buildings on the farm where giant pots of sap are steaming and bubbling away on a well-stoked fire!

 There's somewhat of a science to it: The sap flows from the maple trees on warm days, and comes out at about a 4% sugar content: It doesn't taste much different than water.  Then it is boiled down, and topped up, and boiled down, and topped up, and boiled down some more, and eventually reaches a sugar content of 66%- this ensures the preserving capability of the syrup is reached, as well as the maximum delicious flavour!

      By the time we get to proudly display a bottle of syrup, we have walked up and down the hill enough times with heavy buckets of sap to balance our regular servings of pancakes, as well as having chopped enough wood to keep the fires going and reduce the sap to syrup- a whopping 40:1 ratio!
      We are putting maple syrup in everything and even using the sap when possible, too!  Some of the things we've made include: Maple caramelized onions...  Curry coconut squash soup with maple syrup...  Banana buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup... and more to come, I'm sure!