A sad sight to behold: one of our empty sap buckets

This time of year, I always get a bit jealous driving past houses with 4, or 5, or more sugar maples tapped in their yards. I love maple syrup (I mean, who doesn’t?) and even more, I love making maple syrup. It’s one of those miracles of nature, as far as I’m concerned, and marvel that anyone was able to figure out that you could take this clear watery liquid that would drip from a certain tree, collect enough of it, boil it down and get a golden sugary treat. Growing up in Hallowell (historic house #31), we had 4 or 5 maples on our property that we tapped each year, and I have fond memories of starting the sap boiling on an outdoor hearth, and then bringing it inside once it started to turn a light caramel brown to finish it on the stove. Then there was that infamous year, when we left the sap boiling on the stove over night. It boiled out, and the pot fused to our glass-top stove, filling the house with black smoke and summoning the Hallowell fire department.

We have one lone sugar maple growing on Ten Apple Farm, and a couple of other aging non-sugar maples. We’ve tapped them every year and have consistently been able to make enough for our own annual consumption and a little bit to share with family and friends. It takes between 36-40 gallons of sap to boil down to one gallon of syrup, and that’s usually about what we are able to make from our trees. In fact, just last week, we finished off the last pint jar of 2009’s syrup crop, just in time for the new syrup we looked forward to making this year.

I heard it was supposed to be a good year for maple sugaring this year, but so far for us that hasn’t been the case. We had two weeks of unseasonably warm weather at the end of February and beginning of March, and I think the sap started running a good week or so before we normally would get our taps in. Maple sap needs warm days, but sub-freezing nights in order to run effectively, and the temps just weren’t getting that low at night. We got a couple days of pretty good runs, mostly full sap buckets, and then all of a sudden, nothing. For almost a week, barely a drip. We were panicking. Would we actually have to buy maple syrup this year? Thankfully the past few days the night time temps have dropped back down and the buckets on the north side of the tree have started filling again. All may not be lost, and hopefully, we may get our gallon or so of syrup once again.

Whether you tap your own trees, buy from a local sugar shack, or get your syrup from the store, this light pudding from Julie Jordan’s Cabbagetown Cafe Cookbook is one of our favorite uses for maple syrup, especially when overflowing sap buckets have us feeling flush.

Leche Clema

2 cups milk (goat’s or cow’s)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup maple syrup

2 eggs, separated

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

*

Mix the milk, flour and maple syrup in a medium-size put, and simmer until the mixture is like a thin pudding, about 15 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent lumps from forming.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks. Beat in a little of the milk mixture, then add back to the main mixture.

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold in.

Chill thoroughly, and serve topped with whipped cream.

Farming, Food, Recipes maple syrup, pudding, recipe, spring, trees

Bea and Charlotte climb one of the apple trees (last fall) that we’ll be pruning this coming Sunday (Jan. 24) for our first homesteading workshop of 2010.

We want to apologize for our absence … it’s been quite a while since we last posted something to the site. 2009 was a rough year for many, us included, and ended roughly as well–with Margaret laid up with pneumonia for almost 2 weeks over Christmas and New Years. It’s amazing how quickly the delicate balance of children, chores, work, and other obligations can be upset when one half of the team goes down. Needless to say, it’s taken us a bit to recover. Margaret’s been working on a post about her time spent resting and recovering, which we’ll be posting soon.

Before that, we want to announce our first Homesteading Workshop of 2010, which will be a Winter Tree Pruning Workshop this Sunday, January 24, from 1-4pm, which we’re doing in conjunction with the Lakes Region Permaculture group. Dave Homa, who has pruned trees professionally, will be showing us how to prune our apple trees while they are in their winter dormancy in order to improve their ongoing health and productivity. The event will include discussion of techniques, common mistakes and suggested tools. Handouts will be provided. The session is expected to run about 3 hours, including an hour outside pruning (so dress warm and in layers), and will be followed by the sharing of a potluck meal (please bring a dish to share). There is a $5 fee that covers the Permaculture group’s Meetup costs. Bring pruners or loppers if you have them. There is a limit of 15 people. (Date: Sunday, January 24, 1-4pm). Hope to see you there!

Announcements, Events, Workshops apple, pruning, trees, workshop

When we moved into our homestead, there were ten ancient apple trees scattered around the property: one near the barn, one near the garden, two at a gap in the stone wall that marks the entrance to the orchard, and six farther down, neatly arranged in parallel rows. Most of the apples are relatively pedestrian varieties like Red and Golden Delicious, but we do have a couple that are more interesting, like a Tolman Sweet, and some baking apples that we haven’t yet identified. Since moving in, we’ve pruned the trees, cleared the orchard, and added two hives of bees. The bees didn’t last the winter and heavy rains knocked off most of the blossoms this spring, but even so, each fall we bring up baskets of fruit for sauce and pie and the trees provide a ready snack on our way to hikes in the woods.

For Valentine’s Day this year, Karl and I bought each other one Reliance peach and one Montmorency cherry sapling, which we planted in the front yard. Ever since, I’ve been lobbying for some pears and a couple more apples. We’ve been held back by two things: the deer that come up from the woods and nibble the branches all winter, and our farm name, Ten Apple. Imagine my surprise and delight when we found, dangling like ornaments in a half-cleared thicket behind the paddock, the apples of an eleventh tree! Its trunk was gnarled, and many branches were dead, but there it was, peeking out from between the blackberries and sumac. The spell is broken! (Though I still don’t know how we’ll keep the deer at bay.) It’s another Red Delicious, but never fear, the Fedco tree catalog is open on my desk and I’ve started my wish list.

Agriculture, Events, Food, Workshops apples, trees, workshop

Flyrod (left) chows down on a new batch of sumac leaves and bark. About a week’s worth of stripped branches and saplings litter the background.

Goats like browse. That’s the tall weeds and tough woody stuff, trees, leaves, bark, bramble, you name it. They’ll eat all that before they touch the grass. That’s why they’re great for clearing overgrown patches and bringing it back to pasture, but not so good at keeping the lawn neat and trimmed. Sometimes it’s not so easy to bring the goats to the browse, so in those cases, we bring the browse to the goats. Lately, we’ve been slowly trying to clear the overgrown places encroaching on our small orchard. We don’t want to put the goats down there for fear of the damage they would do to the apple trees. So instead, each morning, I’ll pull out several arm fulls of blackberry and assorted other bramble and cut down a sumac or two and throw it in with the goats. By the end of the day not a single leaf or inch of bark is left.

Goats browse, clearing brush, Goats, trees