Port Potager

This turned out to be a really strange maple sugaring season.  We tapped the tree back in February when we had a bit of a warm-up, and at first things went really well. Afternoons were warm, and we started out with a strong run of sap. Then it got too  hot, and the sap stopped running because the temperatures didn’t drop below freezing for several nights in a row. And then   temperatures plunged , and it didn’t get above  freezing for almost a week. So still not much sap, but for the opposite reason. Then on our final weekend of boiling, this happened: It started as rain but turned to snow while we had the fire going. Not that big of a deal, but not exactly pleasant. But since we weren’t exactly keeping a keen eye on things, we also ended up burning a batch that boiled down more quickly than we expected. And by last weekend, the sap had turned: Once it runs yellow, the season is over. This sap isn’t sweet at all, so I’ve been using...

Though last fall’s honey harvest was complete by December, the bucket of crushed honeycomb left over from the process sat in the basement all winter — until today: It’s still a sticky mess, but not even a little bit worse for wear after a few months (we had the lid on, after all).  Since we got through our (disappointingly small) bucket of sap fairly quickly today, we had space on the fire to deal with the beeswax. So Kirk ran over to Kelly’s  to pick up a new stock pot and sieve — beeswax is pretty messy, so using something from the kitchen was out of the question.  To start, we rubbed some dish soap all over the outside of the pot to try to make it a little easier to clean off all the soot later (lesson learned from not  doing that on the maple syrup pans , which will now blacken your hands instantly). Then we filled it up a third of the way with water and set it to boil: Just as it does in the kitchen, keeping the lid on the pot he...

Week two of maple sugaring is in the books. It was a quick boil today, since we didn’t have all that much sap this week. What we did have was partially frozen this morning, which makes it even faster to process. Unless it’s sub-zero, sugar won’t freeze, so you just toss away the bits of ice that have formed — it amounts to the same thing as boiling, since nature has separated out the sugar, just with cold instead of heat.  Anyway, we used the coals of our fire to make dinner: Notice that we’re all holding our hands way  off to the side: That fire is hot .  Dinner featured a remarkably summery spread made of our winter vegetables. The hot dogs are garnished with homemade, canned dill relish and tomato ketchup . We still have red and white potatoes for frying (though we’ll have to take an inventory before we eat any more to make sure we have enough seed potatoes left for spring planting). There’s also coleslaw from one of our storage cabbages, garn...

We've been enjoying a very mild weekend, and since we tapped our maple on Tuesday, we've collected three five-gallon buckets of sap. That means it's time to break into our wood pile and get cracking on boiling for the year: We decided to go all-in on a real woodpile this year, instead of cobbling together donations and those expensive packages of firewood from the grocery store.  What a difference a year makes in our sap storage facilities, though: Ordinarily we keep the sap buckets packed in a snow bank to keep it cold, but that isn't an option this spring. Almost every bit of snow has melted already! We didn't have much to begin with, and what we did have got washed away in the rain and melted by the nearly 60-degree day we had on Saturday. These are in the shadiest corner (note yet another broken fence section in view — even when winter doesn't deliver in snow, there's always plenty of wind ). Once we set up the maple sugaring...

Today marks a major transition. It was our last day of maple sugaring, and tomorrow we will dismantle the fire pit  that we've used for the past month for evaporating sap and use the cinder block as the base for our rain barrels. Now that nighttime temperatures aren't dipping below freezing (much) any more, the sap isn't running. It's also safe to get the rain barrels set up, since any rain we collect won't have a chance to freeze solid and burst the barrels. This is perfect timing, as we were able to set out a lot of seeds and transplants now that the weather is has finally taken a turn for the better. In honor of the close of our second maple sugaring season, I'm sharing a great recipe that Kirk made last weekend for Easter breakfast. It's a riff off of his dad's Philadelphia cinnamon bun recipe, but made with our homemade maple syrup. Maple Walnut Sticky Buns 1/4 warm water 1 package yeast 1 tsp. sugar 3 to 3/12 cups flour 2...

… just wait a minute.  Or so the saying goes about the fickle New England weather. Trouble is, I was enjoying the weather this afternoon, and didn't need a change, thank you very much. Tiegan and I took a walk after school and had a lovely time: balmy breezes, warm(ish) sunshine, pleasant conversation. About a block from home, though, it started to sprinkle. By the time we got home, it was lightly raining. No big deal.  I went to check the sap buckets, and they were overflowing thanks to the warm afternoon. I was getting a little wet while I transferred the sap to the big buckets, and since we had so much, I had to get another one to of the basement, wash it out, and dig some more holes in our snowbank/refrigeration system: Just as I was sliding that last bucket into place, an icy gust of wind nearly knocked me over. And then I was pelted in the face with a barrage of hail. Um. The temperature dropped like a stone: 20 degrees in just ...

With just a few warm(ish) days, the snow pack has melted significantly since Kirk first dug out a place for the fire pit on the patio back in February : And, as you can see, Kirk set up the fire pit and our evaporator system to start boiling sap today. Last year we used any old bricks we had lying around for the floor, but today Kirk bought some fire bricks for an upgrade: Now the cinderblock box has a fireproof floor to protect the patio and  an inner wall to protect the cinderblocks. It makes the area for firewood smaller, but I think it's better insulated, so it produces just as much heat. This is normally a weekend project, but Kirk had off today, so he decided to get a jump on boiling our first 7 gallons of sap before more sleet and snow arrive over the weekend. We cannot catch a break on the weather. Despite the fact that it is still most definitely winter, we're slowly but surely getting our spring projects underway. As I write this, the ...

Last Sunday we decided it was time to tap the maple tree. A look ahead at the weather showed that this week would bring above-freezing temperatures for at least a few hours most days, and that means that the sap should start to run. Last year we waited until March 8, but I think we missed the earliest sap that yields the really pale amber syrup. This year we thought we'd try to get an earlier start. But first, some digging: It's hard to gauge in the photo with all the whiteness, but I am standing in the path to our front door, looking over some steps carved into the snow and across a path that Kirk (mostly) cleared to the tree. The snow here is still 24 to 30 inches deep, and it wasn't easy to shovel as it is now compacted into an icy block. If you look closely, you can see Kirk shoveling behind the tree. In the end, he couldn't get all the way around to complete the circle because the snow on the north side of the tree is really frozen solid. We ma...

Look what happened today: That's right: temperatures above freezing! Despite it being just 7 degrees for my errands downtown yesterday morning, today it was sunny and almost 40. It's the first day like that all month, and after shoveling away last night's snow (yes, it's still snowing here), we enjoyed a walk  without our coats and hats .  When we got back, Kirk fired up the snow blower again to carve out part of the patio: First he had to find the entryway. If you look carefully, you can see that on the right side of the path a bit of the lavender has been exposed. That was excellent: It made the whole area smell great. After getting through the beds, he cleared away a decent-sized circle. This heretofore untouched blanket of snow is a great reminder of just how much of the white stuff there still is. This is about 3 feet deep, though the entrance to the pathway is above my shoulders.  This area should be just big enough to set up the ...

As of this weekend, our maple sugaring season is over. The trees haven't budded out yet, but the sap has slowed way down now that we aren't getting below freezing temperatures at nighttime any more. We boiled down our last three pints of syrup over the weekend, and next weekend we will be dismantling the fire pit , taking out the spiles , and cleaning everything up to pack away for next year. 2014 maple sugaring stats: 4 taps (3 in our sugar maple and 1 in our Norway maple) 32 days of collecting sap 80-90 gallons of sap 17 1/2 pints of maple syrup The one thing I didn't keep records of was the obscene amount of firewood we burned through to make this happen. I do now that we spent a lot of money on it, because we were getting it at the hardware store by the bag. In the future, we plan to build a small woodshed behind the garage and order a half-cord or cord in the fall, which will see us through any emergency fires we'd need to light due to a power ...

"When the sap has boiled down just enough, he fills the buckets with the syrup. After that, he boils the sap until it grains when he cools it in a saucer.  The instant the sap is graining, Grandpa jumps to the fire and rakes it all out from beneath the kettle. Then as fast as he can, he ladles the thick syrup into the milk pans that are standing ready. In the pans the syrup turns to cakes of hard, brown, maple sugar." "So that's why it's a sugar snow, because Grandpa is making sugar?" Laura asked. "No," Pa said. "It's called a sugar snow, because a snow this time of year means that men can make more sugar. You see, this little cold spell and the snow will hold back the leafing of the trees, and that makes a longer run of sap.  When there's a long run of sap, it means that Grandpa can make enough maple sugar to last all the year, for common every day. When he takes his furs to town, he will not need to trade for much store sug...

Winter is finally (technically) over! I know that tonight it will probably snow again before all's said and done, and it will still be cold and windy for some time yet, but still. By this time tomorrow we will at least be reveling in the knowledge that the daylight has finally overcome the darkness, and will increase each day. The cold can't hold out much longer against those odds. Ahhh. Time to start thing about some seasonal eats. We have just eaten our last parsnips, and are down to our last couple leeks and squashes. I think we have a handful or two of potatoes, and a decent amount of garlic, plus some frozen beans. That's not a whole lot to get us through until the greens come up in the garden in force, considering that we were only able to sow the first round of them this past weekend . Spring has been so long in coming that we won't be having salads any time soon, thanks to the well-below average temperatures this month. So what kind of seasonal goodies ca...