Maple Sugaring

We took a field trip today with Mary and Nicole to Howell Living Farm in New Jersey today...

This has been something I've wanted to do since the kids were little but never got around to going until today.

Depending on the season, there are all sorts of hands on activities and presentations to participate in such as

beekeeping, sawmilling, lambing, sheep sheering, etc.

This is the time of year when they tap the sugar maple trees of their sap for making maple syrup--

The temperatures need to be in the 40's in the daytime and 20's at night...

We've had crazy weather in these parts, so the maple sugaring season has been shorter than usual.

It's been so cold that the sap from some of the trees never make it to the bucket...

Normally, the sap flows fairly steadily into the bucket, so much so that sometimes, the buckets need to be emptied a few times a day...

After the sap is collected, it's placed into a large holding tank.  The sap is then boiled for about 14 hours or so to allow the water to boil off and the syrup is then in a concentrated form...

When the internal temperature reaches 219 degrees, the syrup is then ready to be strained of the minerals and then canned...

After hearing about the "how to's" on boiling down the sap, we took a scenic walk up the road to a 250 year old farm house where we got to eat pancakes made with handground wheat, homemade buttermilk, butter and of course, the farm's own maple syrup.

While we didn't go on one of the wagon rides, it didn't stop Ellie from doing the "horse hover"around her favorite animal...

Nicole isn't the biggest animal fan (say what?) but I love that she bucked up and put on a smile for this picture--I always joke with her that I'm to make her into an animal lover someday!

I have the strongest urge to bend the rim of Jake's hat down.  This apparently is the new "look"...(he's even keeping the labels and stickers on it)...He says that it adds value to the hat, but I say that it just makes it look like it's stolen.

It was nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine today...(even though it was freaking cold).  This was a great diversion from the hideous weather report that we are getting for Sunday night into Monday....

Note:  Many thanks to my rock star friends Mary and Nicole for taking the photos of our day...

I wish I could carry them around in my pocket to help me document each day like this!