#MapleSyrup #sugaring #NewEngland #SoloStove

I told myself last year, after my first tapping, that this was a lot of energy for very little syrup. But it was so precious and delicious, that the siren call of my maples, over the past month, have lured me back. #maplesyrup #Vermont #sugaring #treetapping #liquidgold​

I told myself last year, after my first tapping, that this was a lot of energy for very little syrup. But it was so precious and delicious, that the siren call of my maples, over the past month, have lured me back. #maplesyrup #Vermont #sugaring #treetapping #liquidgold

Set the first tap of the season yesterday, looking forward to a new batch of Black Walnut syrup.

The thing I love about sugaring is that when the sap starts running it’s such a tangible sign that spring is coming—there’s still snow on the ground, and more coming later this week, but the sap is flowing because the trees know that spring is coming, even when it’s hard for us to see.

#BlackWalnutSyrup #Sugaring #SignsOfSpring

Another #Vermont tradition of mine - boiled my 1st batch of #MapleSyrup yesterday thanks to my yard’s Giving Tree. Hope more is to flow/come. #Sugaring

I set my taps yesterday for maple sugaring.

Its been a weird winter: a very warm January, followed by a deep freeze that bounced from -10°F/-23C to 60F/15C in a few days. So I’m curious to see what we get; last year 24 gallons of sap yielded about a quart of syrup.

Of course that would be higher if we had sugar maples; I make do with the Norway maples (aka trash maples) introduced across suburban #Boston.

#MapleSyrup #newengland #sugaring

Day one of sap production was okay, 4.5% sugar. Two of the five taps aren’t producing, so I’m gonna give them a day until I move them. Waiting before my first boil, only collected about 80 ounces today. #sugaring #maplesyrup

Tapped some trees today, probably a little late in the season based on how weird the weather’s been, and a few of the taps were immediately producing sap. Pretty excited for this year. #sugaring #maplesyrup

Saving up for maple sugar season.

#MapleSyrup #sugaring #newengland

Just before we went away on holiday, I tried a Back, Butt, and Crotch waxing (well, sugaring) for the first time 😯

… and then spent an evening trying to figure out how to take an over-the-shoulder butt-selfie. Which went about as well as you’d imagine (… how *do* people flex like that?!)

So anyway, this was the best I could manage unaided. Schmooooooth ☺️

#pup #butt #waxed #sugaring #butt

@wion that is amazing. Loved the video. Have you ever tasted one?

I will be posting some pictures and writing when I get started with the sugaring. It still is very cold here with no prospect of warming in the next 10 days -- a late, and probably short, season. Best weather: 20 degrees F at night 40 degrees F in the day. Simple physics: When the tree warms, moisture gravitates up from the roots and out the taps into the buckets. #sugaring

@wion I have a small, flat pan called an evaporator that has three channels with the new sap slowly streaming in on the left side from the holding tanks. The sap, as it boils moves, by physics, cooler to hotter so the left side boils at 213-degrees (we are 1500 ft above sea level) and on the far right, when it reaches 218, I pull it out and then finish it off on the stove. The higher boiling temperature is a result of there being more sugar concentration. #sugaring

#smallstories I have begun to ready myself to slow down time: Sugaring -- what we call making maple syrup. It is a glacial occupation because you can't make a boiling liquid boil faster. And since it takes from 32-40 gallons of sap (depending on its sugar content) to make a gallon of syrup, you boil for a long, long time. But you see things. Like owls. And I'm glad my pal, a Bard, (pictured below) is back to join our ritual once again.

I will write more as the season gets underway. #sugaring