Mar 21, 2009

Record production (for me)

We achieved the higher volumes of syrup we were shooting for. 1.25 gallons of syrup made on Friday and Saturday (see photo below). If I can get one more weekend like this, I should have enough for the year and a few gifts.

Finished everything tonight at 8PM. That's nice because usually it's much later. The turkey fryers worked really well when turned up high, getting through the 30-35 gallons of sap in about 7 1/2 hours. I also waited longer this time before bringing it onto the kitchen stove. The finishing process was a little faster because of that.

The syrup made last night (below, left) used sap from last weekend and Monday. The syrup made today (below, right) was from late-week sap. It looks a lot darker and tastes a little stronger. I've heard that batch processing like this can make the syrup darker, but haven't found many sources online for that (let me know if you can confirm).

2 comments:

P.H. said...

It is my experience that maple syrup gets dark for two reasons:

1. It got burned. But then it tastes burned.

2. As the season progresses, and the temperature warms, and trees get ready to bud, the sap make up changes resulting in a darkening. The final product has a rick maple flavor.

Congratulations on your record production.

MIchael said...

Its no wonder the Maple tree is the national tree of Canada as well.