another 5 gallons of sap

J. walks warily through the woods
with a bucket ready to go
ain't no sound but the sound of his feet
sloshing through the snow

Are you ready, hey, are you ready for this
Are you hangin' on the edge of your seat
Out of the doorway the steam spews
The boiling's never complete....

Another 5 gallons of sap
Another 5 gallons of sap
And another one boiled and another one boiled
Another 5 gallons of sap
Hey, I'm gonna boil you too

Another 5 gallons of sap

How do you think I'm going to get along
with high humidity?
Wallpaper peelin', house full of mold,
so steamy I can't see?

Are you happy? Are you satisfied?
How long can you stand the heat?
Out of the doorway the steam spews
The boiling's never complete....

Another 5 gallons of sap
Another 5 gallons of sap
And another one boiled and another one boiled
Another 5 gallons of sap
Hey, I'm gonna boil you too
Another 5 gallons of sap

Hey, oh take it,
boil the sap,
boil the sap,
hey hey,

Another 5 gallons of sap
Another 5 gallons of sap
Another 5 gallons of sap
Another 5 gallons of sap, heyyyy

There are plenty of ways to tap maple trees
and get the sap on down
you can drill it
you can spill it
you can hang a bucket
or a tube to a jug on the ground,
But I'm ready, yes I'm ready for you,
haulin' buckets with my own two feet,
Out of the doorway the steam spews
The boiling's never complete....

Oh yeah
Another 5 gallons of sap
Another 5 gallons of sap
And another one boiled and another one boiled
Another 5 gallons of sap
Hey, I'm gonna boil you too
Another 5 gallons of sap

sugaring time!

Sugaring time! The best weather to get the sap running is at least 4-5 degrees below freezing at night and at least a few degrees above freezing during the day, with sunny weather.

If the temperature stays above freezing during the day, the sap won't run, and if it stays below freezing it won't run either.

The worry now is that the maple trees start breaking bud and then their sap gets full of unsavory chemicals.

setbacks

Today I got a bad batch w/ an off-taste. Argh.

Then when I went to boil a test batch to check the quality of a few gallons of partially-boiled sap, I kept it on the stove too long and it burned. Burnt sugar forms a smooth layer of carbon that adheres well to stainless steel. It's difficult to remove without a lot of elbow grease and time; the best way to do it seems to be to scrape off as much as you can with steel wool, and then go through repeated cycles of thermal shock: heat the pan on the stove until it is hot and then spray cold water on the inside of the pan, so that the carbon flakes off when the steel contracts. It's recoverable but a nuisance that's easily avoided with proper attention to a boiling pan of sap.

Sap's running (still)

21 gallons collected in the last 48 hours. whew.

Sap's running

7 3/4 gallons collected yesterday, on a rainy night trudging through wet sloshy snow.