Winner

I am happy to announce the winner from our maple give-away! The winner is MaryS! Mary if you could contact me through fb or email I'll get you your syrup. For the rest of you please contact us at jjhamberg (at) gmail (dot) com for purchase options!

I hope in the next week to have full write ups ready of our very tasty and limited syrup. This has not been a good year for sugaring and most of our syrup we are reserving for ourselves (pancakes are very popular here, especially ones with blueberries in it from our own bushes). I can tell you that we have have two types: a light and medium/dark. According to what I have been reading on-line most consumers would rather have a light syrup on their pancakes vs the darker, sweeter syrup we prefer. What do you prefer?

Pumpkin Soup

Made some yummy soup with food we had preserved: pumpkin and syrup. Don't forget to leave a comment on the last post to win your own jar of maple syrup. Or, if you can't wait order one for yourself!

Maple Give-Away

In celebration of canning our first few batches of maple syrup we are giving away one 1/2 pint of 100% Pure Maine Maple Syrup! 

To enter simply leave a comment on this post anytime between now and April 7th. Make sure to leave your name in your comment so that you can be notified. Only one entry per person please!

1 random winner will be chosen on April 7th via the random number generator at 9pm EST. The winner will be notified through a post the following Monday (April 9th) and will have one week to respond before a new winner will be chosen.

Good Luck!

It Drips

Got some encouraging news when we checked the sap buckets. It's running!

First Day of Sugaring

A few days ago Jason went out and collected sap from our thirty taps. He happened to collect on a cold day and it was all frozen. He managed to get all the buckets emptied despite their frozen state and bring them back to the garage where it will be boiled down. We estimate (hard to do with frozen product) that we have about ten gallons to start. These ten gallons will be carefully boiled until it is reduced down to one quart. 

Today was our first boiling day and Dad spent most of the day getting the stove together and testing out a few additions to his wood furnace. The next time they go out to boil and it's sunny we will take some better pictures. Today we are in the middle of a slow moving snow storm and it was not the best day for taking photos.

Sugaring has Begun

There was quite a bit of activity in the shop this morning as Dad got to work repairing and upgrading the sap sled. The Sappers: Dad, Big Ben, or Little Sister pull the sled behind them on the snowmobile as they visit all the taps out in the woods. This little sled needs to be sturdy enough to pull the large buckets of glorious sap this spring.

Dad tapped the big silver maple in the door yard this morning to see if any sap was running. A steady drip fell into our buckets all day. Not enough to boil by any means, but enough to get excited. The greatest part about sugaring is bringing it in for the finishing boil and filling the house up with that sweet maple smell. We are looking forward to the sweet smell of success.

This is only a portion of all that is left of last years batch. There is a hearty gallon or more in the cupboard, plus the few we took out to sell. There is no specific grade to our syrup, and one batch differs greatly from the next; but for home grown, boiled, and process it's all tasty.