Is Multi-tasking a Good Thing?

Remember when Joel and I tapped our maple trees several weeks ago?

Well, I lost track of how many gallons of sap we collected, but it was quite a lot.   While we were building the decks we put the sap on to boil outside.    It was very windy that day so we set up a piece of plywood as a bit of a wind break to protect the flames of the propane burner and moved our comfy chairs near the flames to keep us warm.  

 Boiling down the sap is a simple task.    We usually put about 4" of strained sap in each of two huge pots onto the burners and crank up the heat.   The goal is to get the sap boiling so the water evaporates.   As the sap boils down to about 1" we add more sap until we once again have 4" in the pot.   Wash, rinse, repeat.   For hours.    And hours.   It takes a while when you have over 15 gallons of sap to boil off!

 So instead of sitting around for the better part of the day we got to work on the deck, making sure to check on the sap every so often.

 Remember this pic?    We were quite busy with the deck.   There was just one itsy bitsy problem.   I got so involved with laying down boards that I temporarily forgot about the sap.   Until I smelled something really sweet in the air....and when I looked down at the pavilion where the sap was boiling off....I saw something horrible.   SMOKE!!!  Holy cow!

 Joel and I ran down to the pavilion and quickly shut off the propane to that burner and when we looked inside the pot, this is what we saw.   Yes.   A charred mess.   And all the gallons of sap we had boiled off in this particular pot were gone.   Aww, man.....can you hear me whining from where you sit?    Yes, I was not very happy with myself.  What a stupid mistake.

Needless to say, from that moment on I paid much closer attention to the remaining pot of sap happily boiling away.    Once the remaining gallons of sap were boiled down and had turned this amber color we shut off the propane under the pot and moved our operation indoors.   The sap needs to be finished off inside where the temps can be more closely monitored.   See how large the bubbles are?    It's not quite syrup yet.

And then all of a sudden the bubbles get smaller and smaller and the whole business froths up.   I checked the temperature of the syrup to make sure it was 7 degrees above boiling water temp and we were done!   Just that simple......

And these are the pretty bottles filled with the luscious gold liquid.   I do believe that is more than enough syrup for us for the next year.   And just think how much more we would have had if I hadn't been preoccupied with the deck?   Sigh.....well, live and learn.   And there's always next year.  Maybe multi-tasking while cooking sap isn't such a good idea after all.

You can bet I'll pay much closer attention to the sap boiling process next year,
Deb

Stocking Up

 I don't know about you, but every few months I like to take stock of what's in my pantry, refrigerator and cupboards.   We all go to the grocery store once or twice a week, or sometimes even more frequently......come on, you know who you are.  I've been guilty of the same thing myself.   But when you add up all those extra trips over a year's time, you realize how much time, gas and energy is wasted with those extra trips.

Over the years I've tried to be more efficient about those trips to the store because studies show that with each trip down those enticing aisles, we tend to make spur of the moment purchases, which really adds up when we step up to the cash register.  Yikes!   Don't wanna age myself, but I can easily remember when I would spend $35 a week on groceries and now that will hardly pay for one bag at the store.  

Having said all of that, I looooove to go to Sam's Club and really stock up.  I mean fill the back of my Tahoe kind of stock up.   Everything from paper towels (still trying to wean myself off of those babies) and toilet paper(ummm, gotta have that) to huge bags of shredded cheese.   And I have tracked the savings of buying in bulk over paying the higher prices at the grocery store.  It's really quite a savings, anywhere from a mere 15% to almost 42%!   Now that's something I can get excited about.

Well, we did just that kind of grocery shopping yesterday in preparation for the winter.   Hey!   If the roads are slick in January, I don't want to drive 18 miles to town for toilet paper, you know what I mean?  Sometimes it takes a little creative storing to find a home for all those duplicates, but we have finally developed the space to hold most of our huge purchases.   One thing that has helped enormously is our vacuum sealer.   All that shredded cheese got bagged up in smaller sized bags and sealed to protect it from freezer burn.  And now when I make our homemade pizzas, I just pull out a bag of shredded mozzarella and I'm ready to call out, "Mangia"!

I'm not prepared to make my own cheeses.......yet......that will have to wait until we get our own cow, so we continue to buy those items in bulk.   But one thing that really gets me irritated is the high price of chemical cleaners.   And I don't really want all those chemicals in our house anyway.   So, I keep trying new recipes for non-chemical cleaners we make here out of simple ingredients in the kitchen.   One of those is an all-purpose cleaner for counters in the kitchen and bathroom  

Vinegar is a natural killer of germs...that's one of the reasons it has been used for centuries to cure food for long term storage.   Well, it works equally as well to clean surfaces around the home.   But, the smell!   Aaargh!   It's just too strong for me...even if it does dissipate as soon as it dries.   I finally found a recipe that works for me.

I had some lemons that were starting to get those brown spots on them, making them the perfect candidate for my lemon cleaner.   While they are not really pretty when the spots appear, the oils in the skin are still available and will scent our vinegar nicely.

So, the lemons get peeled, making certain that there are no traces of pulp clinging to the peel.   Place all the peelings in a mason jar and keep on peelin' until the jar is full.

Here the jar is full of peels and I've got my super-duper sized really cheap vinegar from Sam's at the ready.   Just pour the vinegar over the peels and seal the jar with the lid.   And all the lemon pulp can be juiced and used in recipes if kept in a container in the refrigerator.   No waste here!

The sealed jar just sits for 2-4 weeks until the lemon peels give up all their lovely fresh scent to the vinegar.   Mine sits on the window sill in the laundry room.  The longer the mix sits, the more lemon-y it will smell.   I try to let mine sit for the whole 4 weeks.   Once your waiting period is up, just strain the vinegar solution into a spray bottle labeled for cleaning and you're ready to don those rubber gloves and scrub away.  When using your scented homemade cleaner, you will still smell some vinegar, but nothing like it would be using vinegar straight from the bottle.

As you can see from my label, the last time I made a batch of cleaner I used orange peels instead of lemons.   Use whatever you like.   You can even add a few drops of lemon essential oil to boost the lemonyness.   Is that even a word?   Well, it is now.  You get the idea.   And this mixture costs just pennies....especially since you were already using the lemons or oranges in a recipe and were just going to throw away the peels.   Now you have a really great way to put those peels to good use.  I hope you'll give this a try, you might discover as I have that it isn't so hard to give up those store bought cleaners after all.

Now I have to go make some more laundry detergent, too,
Debbie