Mid-Wis Maple, Redux

How the rest of the season went...

Enough sap had been collected by April 10 to fill the bulk tank...


...started that cooking.

Snowed again on the 17th...


Gathered on the 19th, filling the bulk tank, tote, and cook pan..








But that was pretty much it, it rained on the 20th, and the nights stayed warm, so nothing ran.

By the 23rd most of the water had boiled off, and what was left was a pan full of syrup. Mike is using a refractometer to check the sugar concentration prior to pulling the pan off the fire.


No pictures of pulling the pan, it had to have been quite an evolution, as full as it was. The syrup was scooped into milk cans, hauled out in the (yellow edged) box on the back of X's tractor, and in the bed of Mike's ATV.

Much of it was put into jugs (after triple-filtering)...




The next day, after washing out the filters, the rest was re-heated and filtered, then canned (bottled, jugged, whatever).

We ended the season with just short of 50 gallons.

Everything is washed out...


...and put away for next time—whether that's next year, or later, will depend on how much of this year's production we consume by then.

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