These Two Hands

I almost missed it. Actually, it’s possible that I did miss it. Only time will tell.

Miss what now?

Syruping season.

It usually extends from mid-February to mid-March. I’m at the very southern tip of maple-sugaring land, though, and I’m starting to think that maybe I should have started this at the beginning of February.

I installed these a day ago:

We have one good-sized sugar maple and countless large red maples. (Apparently red maples have the same flavor sap, just with half the sugar so you have to boil it more to make the same syrup).

Once I read that you could syrup from red maples too, I was sold. A chance to put all those “trash trees” on my property to work? You bet.

If I’d known in October that they could be tapped, I’d have wandered all around the property with a can of neon spray paint, marking up my victims for the Spring. That’s ok though – I know for sure where three good maples are, so I started with those.

Good enough for this year. Because like I said, unless we go through another really cold snap, I may have already missed syruping season altogether. The buckets have been out there for a day and a half and… nothing.

Well, maybe a drop or two.

I guess the buckets will still be good next year, right? I’m gonna go right now and mark my calendar for February 1st.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 25th, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under garden & farm, food, homesteading, frugality&(free)cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.