Spring is Near!!

We have maple syrup!! Hooray!! Did you know it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup?? We only have one sugar maple tree, and the rest are red maple. So, it can take even more sap from a red maple. To date we have collected about 7 gallons of sap, and have produced one pint of syrup. When the temperatures are right, we can collect about 5 gallons of sap per day.

Boy, did it taste good. We had it on our waffles on Thursday morning!! Yum!! Glenn had a special shallow pan that someone made. It fits perfectly on our gas grill. So, we start there. Once it's boiled down to about 1/4 full in the pan, we move it to a stock pot and put it on the side burner of the grill. We let that boil down for several hours. The final boiling down occurs inside the house on the stove top. At our elevation, water boils at 210 degrees. The syrup is ready when the temperature reaches 7 degrees above that. So, we aim for 217 degrees. It has been amazing to us to see how long it takes for the syrup to go from 210 degrees to 217 degrees. The last two times it has taken over 3 hours of boiling. As more boils down it creates more sugar which is what makes the temperature rise. This has been a great learning experience for us all.




"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God."

We had so much fun as a family going out with Glenn and tapping our maple trees. It was a wonderful reminder to us of God's creation. This is our first time tapping trees, and the kids are super excited about it. With temperatures during the day this week expected above 40 degrees and freezing temps at night...it's perfect timing.