Saturday, March 05, 2011

A sign spring is on the way

It seems lots of folks are waiting for spring...  Yesterday, when driving down a back road, I came across a farm that had their maple syrup pails hanging from taps in maple trees along the road.  Spring must be getting closer (the sap runs best for Maple Syrup when it is cold at night and above freeing during the day, or so I'm told).

15 comments:

  1. I've heard spring is good for syrup because the sap runs up, but it's better for the tree to wait until fall. Although, having tasted pure maple syrup, I can see why people can't wait until September.

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Have always wanted to take part in this sap-collecting ordeal. (Probably because I like the outcome so very much!!)
    Nice picture!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can you hear the sap dripping into those buckets? I'm just trying to get the complete picture...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Or so you were told?!? I have a feeling you learned that from all those Little House on a Prairie books you've probably had to read. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. What's to stop whatever rodent that's awake from dipping into the bucket.
    You'd wonder about the first fellow that decided to 'tap' the tree. What made him think it might be a good idea, eh.

    P.S. are you not just teasing yourself with all that sugar.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Randall, I haven't heard of anyone making syrup in the fall. It's only the early sap that is good. Once the nights stop dropping below freezing, the sap is no longer good for syrup.

    Kenju, glad to see you can post here again. Ever figure out the problem?

    Charles, it's good stuff!

    Dawn, when I lived in NY state, I got to help a friend one year tap trees--and was given some syrup for my efforts

    Ron, I never listened... I'm now curious.

    Murf, you can learn a lot from Little House books

    Vince, yes, I'm teasing myself, but I have decided that if I need to go easy on the sugars, I'm going to stick to stuff like maple sugar and honey and get rid of white sugar! The farmer will pour the sap into buckets and can check to see if anything is in it. He then has to boil the sap down--it takes around 40 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup.

    ReplyDelete
  7. nice. that is a great sign for me...we are going to the syrup festival next weekend...rather tastes like water straight from the tree...but what they do to it...yummmmm

    ReplyDelete
  8. I actually saw a flock of geese headed North east yesterday...hope flying on the air...of course that was before 4 more inches of snow fell. hahahahaha

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'd love to see that syrup thing in action sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You be jammin! STAY AWAY FROM THE SYRUP--until I see the next A1C!!!

    J

    ReplyDelete
  11. I heard early Fall before freeze, but what do I know.

    ReplyDelete
  12. mmm maple syrup and signs of spring
    what could be better

    also wanted to thank you for visiting my site and your kindness
    Moonie smiles

    ReplyDelete
  13. We love maple syrup on our pancakes and waffles. A yummy time!

    ReplyDelete