The sweet beginnings of our Maple Syrup Production

It was a cold night in the early spring around 15 years ago. I don’t have many memories of that first season. What stays in my mind today as I was helping with my brother in law Melvin that night was two things. I was cold and I was tired! 

 That was the year that he decided to tap a bunch of maple trees in the woods where we live now. I don’t remember how many, maybe 150 taps and hooked a special bag to each tap for the sap to collect into. Then each day we would need to walk through the woods collecting the sap into buckets. Collecting sap was no small feat. Going up and down the hill through the woods,we would go to each tree every day and dump the sap out of the bags into our buckets. And then carry it to a tote that  we then used to haul it back to the evaporator.

 Back then we did not have any building to do our boiling in so  Melvin had fastened shipping pallets together and put some tin onto the outside. While that offered some shelter from the elements it was a very drafty little building. Our first evaporator that we used was a small 3 by 4 homemade pan. We would pour the sap into one side and then it would go back and forth through the channels to the other side where we would drain the syrup off. While it was very primitive it got us off the ground and we got a good taste of sugaring.

The evening was cold when we finally got a wood fire rolling in the fire box and poured the first sap into the pan. At 40+ gallons of sap to every gallon of syrup that syrup was slow in coming. While Melvin kept the fire hot by throwing wood into the fire every several minutes I tried to keep warm by the chimney and maybe catch a few winks of sleep. My one side was hot and my other side was shivering!  But we did get syrup! The night was far spent till we finally finished that night and poured the first golden, sweet, and wholesome syrup into our containers to take home and put on our pancakes the next morning.

  Now today we are excited to be able to share the world best sweetener with you.   Click Here and order syrup today. 

Darlene’s Simple Maple/Peanut Butter Fruit Dip 

1 Cup. Organic peanut butter 

1 Cup plain yogurt

¼-½-Maple Syrup to taste

Blend together in a small bowl with a fork or spoon 

This makes a very tasty dip! Especially good w/apples, but other fruit works too.

Sincerely,

Your Farmer Lamar