Happy Saturday, friends! Waking up this morning to 1 degree Celsius is such a blessing, and with the prospect of having 12 C today is -woowee! Bring on the tropical weather. All jokes aside, it’s so nice to see the sun again, after a week of cloud, drizzle, and snow. I am looking forward to this blog this morning – it is quite special to me. I have successfully harvested, finished, and tasted our homemade maple syrup! On top of that, school has started again and I received a special treat on my second day back, which you’ll find out shortly.
So pour up a cup of coffee or tea, have a treat, and enjoy a post from The Eason Clan.
Homemade Newfoundland Maple Syrup
After I had drilled and tapped nine of our twenty-four maple trees, I set up my collection buckets and let nature do its part. Every day I would check the maple water collecting in the containers, with some trees producing more than others. I had tapped every tree on its south side, about 4 feet high, and ensured that the diameter of the tree was at least 10 inches. Each evening I would empty the containers into a large stainless steel stock-pot, and store it in my fridge in the basement (water maple has a high spoil point, so leaving it in warm temperatures can cause it to spoil quickly).
Ideally, you want gallons of maple water before you start the process of boiling it down to maple syrup. We hit a bit of a cold snap for our trees, and my trees stopped producing – so I decided to boil down 6 litres to make sure that it didn’t spoil in my fridge. I started boiling first outdoors, however, my outdoor turkey fryer burner started to cut out, and the flame kept going out (even though I had hooked up a 40 gallon tank). I had my syrup on a good boil too!
Not deterred, I took my stock pot indoors, and started the boil again on my stove. Boiling syrup in your house is not ideal! Every Youtube video I watched, everyone suggested boiling outside, due to the amount of steam that is involved in the boiling off process.
With my kitchen fan on bust, I boiled down my six litres of water maple. Keeping it at a steady 215 F, I began to slowly see the chemistry happening. The water, which was clear, was now starting to turn a golden-ish colour. Since I had such a small amount anyway for the boiling process, I had to be very careful – if I left the stove for a moment in this ending process, it could quickly burn off the rest of the water, and the syrup could become caramelized.
I used some cheese cloth as a strainer, and poured the liquid into a smaller pot (about a 500ml mason jar amount), passing it through the cloth to filter out any sugar crystals or debris. I then carefully brought the syrup to a boil again, and when it reached around 219F, using a spoon, I took some syrup out to test the consistency. It was just right! Not too thick, but runny enough to easily fall off the spoon.
Pouring out the finished syrup into a small mason jar, I had about 150 ml (about a 40:1 ratio). The following morning, we made homemade pancakes, had some Kirkland bacon, and drizzled our pancakes with our own maple syrup – it was delicious. My wife approved, and the kids devoured their pancakes. Honestly, it was better than store bought maple syrup. So sweet and rich, plus knowing that it was from our own trees was something special. I quickly brought some over to my parents, who tasted the fruits of the labours of planting those trees over 35 years ago. As I watched my father eat a pancake with the golden syrup on it, his face lit up. My mother soon followed lead, and she said it was the best syrup she ever had. Well, that in my mind was a job well done, definitely worth the effort.
My takeaways from this experience are 1) I will be doing this again next year. 2) I will start about a week earlier next year, and leave my taps in longer. A friend of mine told me yesterday that his taps are producing huge amounts right now. After mine went through a dry spell, I had taken mine out – bummer! 3) I will be investing in a proper burner for outdoors, and then finish the process on the stove.
Special Birthday Treat
After a nice Easter break, it was back to the races at school. My students were straight back to work, and the feeling was mutual – let’s get going! It’s interesting how a school break can help you reset, and then come back stronger for the last round. I officially coined this last term Endgame (with a little inspiration from Marvel: Endgame).
I want to assure my readers, I am not suggesting an end of the world situation😉, rather it’s an encouraging method to my students – you can change your past study methods and work ethics; put your best foot forward, for the last term before the end of the year.
On Wednesday, after the first day of classes were finished, one of my students came back into the classroom and said, “Mr. Eason, how was your birthday? It was during Easter break, right?” To know we were gone for two weeks and to have a student ask me how my birthday was (April 7) was special to me. Then to top it off, yesterday, one of my students came in with a delicious cookie cake made by her family, with “OLD MR.EASON” on the box cover!!! What a laugh! At recess time we had this cookie dessert, and some actually made it home for my family.
It’s interesting how different chapters start and end. You know, we go through seasons in life, all which bring challenges and benefits. Yet, through it all, we have to look for the positives and enjoy those special moments.
Lord, thank you for these blessings.
To my readers, thank you for sharing, commenting and following my blog. I hope you have a great weekend.
Christian
The Eason Clan 