From the category archives:

maple syrup

Terroirism

December 13, 2009

Terroir was originally a French term in wine, coffee and tea used to denote the special characteristics that geography bestowed upon particular varieties. Agricultural sites in the same region share similar soil, weather conditions, and farming techniques, which all contribute to the unique qualities of the crop. It can be very loosely translated as “a [...]

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Starting the New Year

March 7, 2009

Until 1752, the new year in England, and thus in New England, started on March 25. This makes a lot of sense, the year really does start in March, with sugaring. Which, by the way, doesn’t mean that the holidays shouldn’t be in December. In March, there’s work that must be done. In December, there’s [...]

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Maple Meditations

April 4, 2008

It was supposed to start raining about ten this morning, so we didn’t worry about leaving the sap uncovered to cool. There was half an inch of snow on the ground (and in the sap) at six this morning. One hundred sixty five gallons boiled down to fifteen over the last two days. It’s cold [...]

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Just Ducky

March 27, 2008

Our next expansion arrived yesterday and today: Sixteen Pekin ducks and ten Toulouse geese yesterday, 26 White Midget turkeys today. The ducks and geese spent the night in the living room while the woodstove warmed the basement. Today everyone went downstairs. They’re all set up with gamebird starter and water, on a bed of shavings. [...]

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Spring Goes Sproing

March 23, 2008

Spring is oh so slowly coming. The twice weekly storms are more rain than snow, and I can leave the hose out to water the animals. We had the same temperatures in December, but the December sun was not enough to thaw the hose in the afternoon, while the March sun does. That saves a [...]

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Maple Sunday

March 9, 2008

Around noon yesterday, during the last break in the rain, I brought in 24 more gallons of sap. We then spent the day watching rain and the night listening to wind. Today was cold and very windy. We fired up the evaporator first thing after breakfast and ran it till about 6:30 We boiled 75 [...]

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Sapped

March 8, 2008

Whew. What a long day yesterday was. After Thursday’s really good sap run and all that yummy sap we collected, we finally got the evaporator together. It wasn’t too complicated, except that there wasn’t an instruction sheet or anything (grrr!), so we had bought the wrong thickness of firebrick. We decided to just put it [...]

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