excellent. Now all we need is the etymological track.
Everything comes around. I spent part of my life, for a few years, as a child in New York City (1 yr) and a suburb of Chicago (5 years), fairly formative for my sense of myself, or if not formative, providing grist for various mills.
I remember reading, oh, perhaps in eighth grade, about sugar maples, and also remember being interested in PA dutch art. I specifically remember getting a book out of the Evanston Public library on pa dutch art, or at least I think I do. It was, ahem, a novel. Trying to remember as I type... the young woman was developing a career out of doing this art and making her way in the world. This would have been around 1955. Evanston Public Library? Maybe not. Maybe it was my grade school library... which I gain more respect for as time goes by.
well, in this season, we made a little more than 2 gallons of syrup.Then the weather got warmish and the sap started tasting like tree bark. so we quit. we tapped about 30 trees, all along fence rows and they produced a very sweet sap. it took only about 27 gallons of sap to make 1 gal of syrup , while if we tapped trees in the woods wed need about 35 to 40 gal of sap.
We packed it off to our neighbor who has a pasteurizing rig. Gave him a half gallon so weve got about just enough maple syrup for waffles to last almost a year.
Of course, I took 2 days off to get it all in and poured into tins. If it doesnt get pasteurized it gets sour and starts fermenting. so thats the end of maple sugaring for this year. I need to get a bunch more of the little tappers. they look simple to make but im not sure what theyre called so i can find them at a supply house.
I buy Maple syrup at HEB grocery chain about once or twice a month. I use it in place of sugar on my oatmeal.
