April 11, 2015. Perhaps unsurprisingly, if you were anywhere in Maine or New England this winter, a late start to the sugaring season. But Friday was sunny and beautiful, with a solid overnight run, and Saturday - though windy and gray in the morning - ended up bringing in some nice sap, too. My students (Rose, Papi, Myranda and Erika) joined us in the early afternoon, promptly set up a proper hobo camp in the sugarhouse dooryard, and witnessed the first billows of steam rising from the evaporator pan. Myranda strained sap like a champ, Rose shared her backyard sugaring stories, Erika took steamy footage through her Go-Pro camera, and Papi fed the fire.
The first run syrup is a nice light medium with lots of vanilla flavor. (The hobos said it tasted pretty good in campfire baked beans.) It's fair to say that we probably went through a whole sleeve of dixie cups as we drew off the evaporator, just to make sure nothing was poisoned. :) Below: some more pictures of the fun -------
Snowshoe hike to check vacuum in the sugarbush, Erika falling (what a surprise!), flipping on the evaporator switch, and making that sweet liquid gold...