Bah-ha-ha-ha.....I'll bet you're wondering what in the world I'm talking about now, aren't you? Well, just like the title above says, we're getting sappy here on the farm. Whaaaaat? Yup, I read that Maple trees are not the only trees that you can tap for sap and cook down to syrup. Guess what other trees can be tapped? Yes! Black walnut trees. And we just so happen to have some of those down in our valley below the huge bluff boulders.
And speaking of the bluff boulders, when we were down there I took this shot of the thick moss and icicles covering the boulders. So. Very. Pretty.
Because the ground has been slippery and sloppy we drove the Polaris down the steep incline to get to the trees we were interested in tapping.
Check out our fancy schmancy sap buckets, A.K.A. empty milk jugs with a small hole cut in the side where they will hang from the tap in the tree.
In order to get sap from the tree we drilled a hole at a slight upward incline. The time of year to do all of this is late winter leading into early spring when the nights are still below freezing and the days warm up a bit above freezing so the sap will "run".
Once you clear any debris out of the hole, a sturdy "tap" gets pounded into the tree and wouldn't you know, sap immediately started running out! Upon closer inspection of our huge trees we noticed that we were not the geniuses we thought we were. There were scores of old holes from previous years where someone else tapped the very same trees. Sap was running out of many of the holes, making the bark wet. Who knew?
While we were working we heard the familiar "honk-honk" of Canadian Geese flying overhead as they headed north. Over a three day period there were thousands of geese in varying sized flocks winging their way home.
Sometimes they flew really low over the farm. Don't ask me why but I love hearing and watching these graceful birds in the air. I can't seem to resist running outside to look up in the sky whenever I hear their familiar call.
But back to the sap we go. After we put 2 taps in each of our largest trees, we simply hung a milk jug from each tap and waited to see how much sap we would collect.
By now I'm sure you know about my fascination with our bluff area of the farm. It's a steep walk to get down there and I'm glad we took the Polaris when we went back much later to check on our stash.
Eureka! We've got sap running! Some days we go down to collect the sap first thing in the morning and then again late in the afternoon. But when the temps don't get above freezing and the sun isn't out, the sap really slows down and we only check the taps once a day.
The idea is to collect the sap as long as it remains clear. Right now it simply looks like water, it's that clear. But when it begins to look cloudy it's time to stop collecting the sap as that type of sap will ruin the batch of syrup we plan on making. At least that's what I read in my latest book acquisition, "Sugarin' ".
I tasted the sap straight out of the tree and it is only slightly sweet as the sap itself is over 90% water. We have been saving our sap in a large stainless steel pot in the refrig down in the pavilion because it has to stay cold until we are ready to cook it down. When we have gallons and gallons of it we will cook it outside as the evaporation of all that water creates a tremendous amount of steam.
By the time the sap boils down and begins to thicken we will take the pot in the house where we have better control over the burners on our trusty propane stove in the kitchen. From there the process is one of monitoring the temperature of the syrup until it reaches a certain stage and color and then we can bottle it! The syrup from a black walnut tree is supposed to have a slightly nutty flavor and we're really excited to see how the end product tastes.
I'll let you know when that happens,
Deb
