It's M&M Season...

...And, I'm not referring to those delicious colorful candies that "melt in your mouth, not in you hand"...although, with Easter just two weeks away, that application of "M&M" would be appropriate.

But, no, I'm calling it M&M season for maple and MUD!

Yes, we are experiencing both this month.  The good news is that the sap still flows generously from our trees, and it still has decent sugar content.


As it warms up and spring truly arrives in the Northeast, the sugar content of the sap drops from 2-2.5%...to 1.5%...down to 1%, and so on.








With the reverse osmosis machine to concentrate the sap, we can still make yummy maple syrup from sap that is 1.2% sugar.  Once it drops below that...well...it just doesn't work so well.



Since my last blog we've continued to have this cycle of 2-3 days of collecting sap, then several days where the weather is just not conducive to sap flow.




We just roll with it...











...collecting, concentrating and boiling as we can.

We've bottled only about 5 gallons so far, mostly in 1/2 gal. and quart jugs...


...and store the rest in our handy-dandy food-grade buckets to be bottled at a later time when we're less busy with the "raw production" end of things.

I don't mind this at all.

Why you ask?  

Well, in order to bottle maple syrup properly, it must be heated up to 180-185 degrees Farenheit... which makes my house smell FABULOUS!!

It's a sticky job, but somebody has to do it! 










So far we've made "amber" and "dark" syrup.  The "very dark" usually comes at the end of the season, so, if not today's run, it's looking like we'll get one more good run towards the end of this week, which is likely to produce my favorite "very dark" syrup.

I can't wait to taste that rich, robust maple flavor on my pancakes and in my coffee or tea!  










We collect a grading and quality-control sample from each boil.  This photo shows the progressive darkening of the syrup we've made so far...

We're figuring on a couple more evenings of boiling yet this month, which also means a few more evening meals in the sugar shack...

I think tonight, I'll make pancakes and bacon....served with delicious dark maple syrup, hot, fresh off the evaporator!

(I know that I mentioned a new price list in my last blog, but we're just getting into our bottling...Next blog post, I promise!! Check back next weekend, Friends.)

Come on, Spring!