MAPLE SAP TEA

We are anxious to start boiling sap but so far it isn't happening. We needed to add a chimney to our fire-pit and worked on that yesterday afternoon. Since we didn't have enough sap to boil but were enjoying the afternoon sun, we decided to light our first fire and boil water. 

We figured if the pit will boil water it will boil sap. As we sat and enjoyed the fire and waited for the kettle to whistle we thought why not boil sap and toss in a tea bag.

Does a watched kettle ever boil?

Mary wanted to go and check on the buckets, but first a few final instructions to make sure I didn't let the kettle boil dry.

If we are going to have tea, we need homemade peanut butter chocolate cookies, seen here cooling on the snow.

This is our setup, very basic but I think it will do the job. The blue bucket sits where the pre-heating sap pan will sit. The kettle sits just above the fire where the boil-off pan will be located and we will keep an eye on the whole operation from the comfort of our chairs. You can see one skid of wood close at hand, another across the driveway. (Note the amount of snow still hanging around) Next year we will have four ready to use.

Finally it was time to enjoy a cup of maple sap tea, sweet to the taste. In some cultures the sap is consumed as a medicinal drink. It is surprisingly delicious.

Hopefully the sap will run today. Tomorrow, Leanne and Sherri arrive with Owen and we would like nothing better than to be boiling off sap when they pull up the driveway.

Thanks for stopping by and check back tomorrow for more pictures.