Tag: SPRING

Who Doesn’t Love Maple Syrup

It’s That Time of Year Again

This post is an excerpt from several posts on my old blog, countrygirllifeonthefarm, but it’s the right time of year to show up again. 

If you have a maple tree in your back yard you can make your own maple syrup just like we do (in a condensed version)!  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup or 20 gallons makes two quarts.  You could cook it off on the stove in your home.  You don’t have to have a sugar house to make your own syrup.

Here’s the instructions we use to make it in the sugar house:

First, watch for the right time and to do that you have to have a sugar maple tree of at least 15″-20″ across the girth of the tree (not circumference). In late February or early March wait for very sunny days and below freezing nights. When this happens the sap will begin to move up the tree from the roots. They’re sucking water out of the ground up through the body of the tree.

Second, prepare your sap taps! The first ones I ever made, my Dad showed me how by cutting a 6″ limb from an elderberry bush. We carved all the bark and stuck a crochet needle through the little limb pushing the soft bark through to the other end. This limb is very soft and porous and will easily push out. You don’t have to wait until spring to do this. In the fall when the berries and leave have fell off the limbs you can cut the limbs then and make the tubes.   BUT, you can also buy the taps (sometimes called spiles) from old country stores (Lehmans) and I have found some at hardware stores or maple festivals. BUT, if you are making your own, continue on to clean out the 6″ limb until it’s fairly smooth and has a good hole for the sap to drain through.  We also use these plastic plumbing tees that allow us to hang the bucket from just like the metal spiles.  The tees are much cheaper!  Both last for a long time when cared for and the tees are easier to clean at the end of the sap season.

There are many types of spiles/taps to be found.

Next your going to drill two or three holes around the trunk of the trees about 20-36 inches off the ground using a 3/8″ drill bit (match the drill bit to your tap) about 3/4″ to 1″ into the trees.   DON’T WORRY, THIS DOES NOT HURT THE TREE!  The holes heal over within a month after the sap season.

      

Place the tap into the tree making sure it’s tight. If it’s not tight the sap will leak out around the tap and your wonderful sap is creeping down the side of the tree instead of out the tap into the bucket.

 

If the trees have thawed enough and the sun is hitting them the sap will immediately start dripping from the spout/tap (spile).  Just for fun, stick your finger under the drip and get a taste. It will taste just like cold water. It’s after the cooking that it starts to taste sweet. Also, at this stage it will be somewhat sticky. Let it drip all day and if it’s a good day (below freezing the night before and very sunny come morning) you might want to check that bucket under the tap several times during the day.  Once the sap starts running good, your gallon bucket could be full and running over within a couple hours.

We use metal coffee cans for the gathering buckets. I use a nail to tap a hole in the top on each side of the bucket and run a thin wire through and knot for the bail of the bucket. The gallon cans aren’t so heavy that they’ll pull the taps out of the tree if they get full and they will  get full and run over. We keep old milk cans between the trees for holding the sap each day and we keep a milkcan on the ATV for gathering when the trees are some distance apart.  At the end of the day we empty all the cans into the big holding tank.

All of the sap is stored in this tank and kept in the garage so it will stay cold and fresh until time to cook it off.

    

The tank holds 210 gallons and it was specifically purchased just for sugar maple processing!!

A regular garden/water hose will attach to the faucet when we’re ready to fill the pans.

None of the process is hard but it keeps us quite busy emptying buckets all day long. We have maple trees all over the farm and some are over a hundred years old!

The taps will freeze up during the night and that’s okay. Usually by 9:00 A.M. on sunny mornings  the taps are dripping again and by noon on really warm up days we will have to empty all the buckets at least three or four times. We usually tap 10 to 20 trees each spring, weather permitting.   A few years back we bought a 250 gallon water tank and when the sap is running good,  it’s full in  about  7 to 10 days.   Then it’s time to start making syrup. 


Did I mention that a week prior to all the gathering we bring in a pickup load of four-foot firewood for the firepit. Once the sap is gathered Eddie gets the fire started in the sugar house and starts pouring the sap in the pan over the firepit. We have all of this under roof because most of the time the wind is howling, it’s snowing, it’s raining, very cold and occasionally a beautiful day!        

As soon as the fire gets started, the sap is poured into all four panels of the sugar pan. This is done quickly so as not to scorch the pan or burn the sap.

Now the cooking begins!  We have time now to fill up more milkcans or clean out the ones we’ve used. It all depends on how frisky everyone is and how good the sap is still running. The cooker is watched carefully once it starts boiling and the foam that builds up on the top is dipped off and thrown into a bucket. The foam can make it strong but the honeybees love it and we share those leftovers with them for extra food at this time of year. As the sap cooks off it will become thick and it’s moved from the larger panels of the pan into the smaller panel at the end of the pan where it gets thicker and thicker and sweeter and sweeter.


Reading this and looking at the pictures can be deceptive. This whole process of cooking can take as much as two days of working day and night. Shift work between all of us keeps everyone from getting tired too soon and making mistakes or deciding to take the syrup off too soon!! As the sap cooks and boils down, it is moved into the smaller pan gradually and watching the smaller panel is very critical. After about 100 gallons of sap has been cooked and moved, it is left to cook quickly and to thicken. When we begin it runs out of the dipper like water but near the end of the process it runs out like thin syrup and it gets sweeter the thicker it gets. While this is happening in the smaller panel, the other two panels are kept full and cooking. The clear sap will start turning a beautiful amber-to-topaz color and we just keep adding the sap while the smaller panel syrup is ready to take out of the pan.

There is a plug and drain line at the end of the small panel and we have a very large stainless steel pot ready to drain the finished syrup into. We don’t use any thermometers, hydrometers or fancy gadgets to test the syrup. We’ve just learned to take it off by the consistency and taste of the syrup along with the color. This process of taking off the syrup is quick with several hands helping. The syrup must be moved quickly, plug the hose, and pour boiling sap from the larger pans to keep the pan from scorching. If it scorches we’ll have black burn flakes floating in the syrup at finish.

During the cooking process, foam builds on top of the liquid and we use scoops and wooden scrapers to gather and dip it from the boiling sap. 

The scrapers are used to push the foam buildup to one side of the pan and then it’s scooped out into a bucket.
It’s very important to keep the foam off or the sap could have a bitter taste.

   

Once the first batch is in the pot I take it to the house and strain it four or five times through 10-15 layers of cheesecloth and set aside to cool. This is also a fun part of the process because I have made fresh bread the day before, gathered a couple dozen eggs and prepare to make a batch of delicious french toast and serve to all the helpers. Of course, everyone pours lots of “fresh from the sugar house” maple syrup over their toast.

 While the second batch is cooking in the sugar house, we let the first batch cool and settlement from the batch settles at the bottom of the stainless steel pot. The settlement is actually maple sugar that can be separated at the end of the process, pour into a sheet pan and left to harden for snacking later. Talk about a sugar rush!!! It looks like harden brown sugar and tastes much like it too. Each time the syrup cools and settles, we run the syrup through cheesecloth again and keep the “sugar candy” separate. After three or four more heatings on the stove and three or four strainings, the syrup is ready to can. It will be boiling hot when it comes off the stove and poured in the sterilized jars. The jars are capped and the boiling syrup seals the jars.

 We make sure that everyone that helped with the process is sent home with a jar of syrup, we sell better than half of the jars and we keep some for family/personal use for the rest of the year or until the next season.

Saving Apple Seeds

A few years ago, I saved some seeds from our favorite apples. I planted those seeds the first year we had the greenhouse and I was truly surprised that they sprouted within two weeks and grew all summer. 

Apple seeds to be sown in spring 2024.
Three of my first from seed. I think I planted about 20 that year.

I know that growing from seed won’t give us the “true tree” the seed came from, but it will give us some characteristics of that tree, such as size. We planted those trees three years later for root stock. I over-wintered them in the basement of an old house on the property to keep them cool and away from deer and rabbits. I wanted them to have a really good root system before we planted them in the ground. 

Pink ribbon denotes the apple tree at two years old.

We lost two of the trees the first year in the ground due to rodents eating the bark and two more last summer due to drought, even though I watered them during the summer months.

This year we want to move them to the orchard behind the house and graft them to our Wolf River apple scion. Scion is a twig containing buds from a woody plant that is grafted onto the stock of another plant. This twig will be grafted to our little trees and if it lives, we will have Wolf River apples on new stock.

These are the last Wolf River apples we picked about three years ago.

We’ve lost lots of apple trees in the last ten years to age, wind, and gypsy moths. Trees we’ve purchased from big box stores for replacements rarely make it but sprouts that come up randomly on the farm, grow and survive. They’re not always growing in an area that’s productive for our farming such as hayfields, loading pens, along fencing, etc. We have dug up a few of those and they’ve lived we think because they’re from seed that has adapted to our weather extremes.

This is one of the yellow delicious that we purchased, and it lived three years.

We have three apples we’re hoping to graft this spring and they are Wolf River, Arkansas Black and Transparent. We also have McIntosh, Mammoth Pippin, Starks, and Winesap. All of these make wonderful apple pies and awesome for cider. We use our apples for cider, juice, apple butter, and applesauce, among other things.

The last three spring we only got a few apples due to late frosts and freezes while the trees were budding. Fall 2023 left us with no apples which made us very unhappy and so were the deer, rabbits and other wild animals.

Luckily, I had frozen lots of applesauce and in 2022 we bought “horse” apples from an orchard nearby for cider and juice. Horse apples are sacks of apples that orchards purge from their baskets because they’re not “perfect”. They me be small in size, imperfect shape or slightly bruised. There’s nothing wrong with them but they’re perfect for cider and juice.

My advice, plant those seeds, grow root stock, and check with friends or acquaintances for their favorite scion limbs to graft to your root stock. Apple trees are beautiful shade trees and the smell of apple tree blooms in the spring is heavenly!!! 

One of our largest orchards with old apples and they’re gorgeous in the spring.

If we have a good spring and get to graft our young trees, I’ll write a post with pictures and instructions.

Never Satisfied With My Flower Gardens

When it comes to my flowers and their beds I’m just never satisfied. Each summer I critique them and then start thinking about what would be better. 

This is my “big bed” in the center of the main yard. Wintertime really makes me think of changes that need to be made.

Each summer I change something, the flowers, the plants already in the bed, the color scheme, something EVERY year. This year will be no different, my “best bed” pictured above is going to expand out from all sides. The bed will remain blue and purple with a touch of white (Shasta daisy).

The flowers in it are flourishing and I am going to expand all sides at least 24 inches using some of the flat stones in the rose garden.

The rose garden needs changes too and these flat stones will be moved out.

These stones came from the foundation of the OFWC home which was beyond repair and our daughter built her new home in its place. The stones are huge slabs of limestone from the farm, and most are 12 – 20 inches wide, 24 – 36 inches long and 2-4 inches thick. This stone is currently the frame of the “best bed” and this summer I’ll stack some on top of what’s there. The expanded area will be covered with heavy ground cloth, filled with excellent garden soil, topped with Miracle Gro potting soil and then I’ll plant matching seed out from the existing plants on all sides.

Since my chickens are free range, I’m planning to put up an 18-inch white picket fence around the bed instead of chicken wire. I think it will be a beautiful contrast to the pink and purple tall flowers. 

I cannot wait to get started!!!

ICE AND SNOW

The early morning of 12/11, we awoke to ice and a bit of snow on the ground. That’s the moon in the background and the photo was taken from our kitchen window.
It wasn’t much but our ground needs all it can get.

It stayed around for about three days and the sun came out and melted it all away and we had that lovely mud. We seem to always get wind right before the snow and then it returns after the snow to cause a raw chill to the air.

Then the weekend of the 6th of January brought us more ice and sleet. Heavy winds were an issue through yesterday the 11th. Our weather gauge showed the highest wind around 9:30 yesterday morning and shortly after we lost power.
We only lost power for about two hours and our electric coop was on top of it quickly. They are so good but more than that brave for working in this horrible weather.

Though it was only 26* when we got up this morning at present the sun is shining gloriously and the wind has stopped. According to our weather forecasters we have more of the same coming again tomorrow through Saturday and then again next week with the temps not getting out of the thirties.

We got two inches of rain during this storm and expecting it again.

The best part, there’s only 69 more days until the first day of spring 2024 and you can bet, I’ll have seeds started that day!!!

Summer Bouquets

It’s December and I’m already missing the beauty of my summer blooms.

Clematis, butterfly bush, foxglove, and balloon flowers
Iris
SHASTA DAISY
Bouquets all summer
Tall phlox, butterfly bush, cleome, Echinacea, Arizona reds, and hollyhock
Daylilies of so many colors
Peonies and roses
Lupine

These photos may hold me until next spring!!!

Flower Boxes Painted

Yardwork has been the name of the game for the last week, and it’s still only partially done.

Looking back to 2020, hubby made me these primitive flower boxes for the front porch.
Back then I filled them with a new plant that I’d not grown before, Arizona Red Gaillardia! They were beautiful and the hummingbirds loved them.
They grew fast and I was so proud that I had grown them in my new boxes!
Last year they were full of coleus. This year they got a coat of paint and are now full of marigolds of bright orange and reds.

There’s two on each side of the porch with a pop of color in between.

The pot on each side of the porch has a red geranium, purple sweet potato plant and a green vine that all came from Walter’s Greenhouse.

The Hosta’s in front of the porch, as usual, are showing off their beauty. I think I may just live on my front porch as soon as it warms up.

They’re Back . . .

He showed up on the fifteenth like clockworks. He’s sitting on a maple tree limb beside the front porch.

April 15th and our first hummer of the year has arrived. He found the feeder that I put out on the first and the next day another one showed up. We now have a male and female. I put the feeder out on the first because last year they showed up early and I wasn’t prepared. I checked their syrup yesterday afternoon to make sure it was still good, and I didn’t have to make another batch.

They’re always a bit flighty when they first show up and it was hard to get a good photo.

When the Hostas Come Up. . .

In one week, they went from buds sticking out of the ground to this.

So does the wild asparagus.

This stuff is like gold on our dinner table. Thanks to the birds, we have a large crop on the west side of our garden.

This is also the time that merkels/morels are found in the forest. Eddie was lucky enough to find a small patch of them (enough for one meal) before they dried up. Boy, was it a great meal!

Garden Plowed

Spring has sprung with very cool temperatures in the morning and 60’s to high 70’s in the afternoon. We’ve had frost every morning since Wednesday a week ago. All mornings in the low 20’s and some low 30’s.

Plowed and ready for the rototiller.

The ground was wet and dark, but the wind has dried everything out. The rototiller will grind and soften the chunks into workable soil. We have our seed potatoes and the onion sets which are always the first thing we plant. We plan to put them in the garden next week, weather permitting.

Pruning Plum Trees

I’ve been adding fruit and nut trees to our farm for several years and so far, they’re doing well. We’ve added apple, peach, plum and cherries. Last year I even got some almond and chestnut trees going. The cherries are tart and this year I want to find some sweet black heart cherries. Hoping to start some peach and hazelnut this spring. All of the trees need to be pruned but we’ll start with the plum and grapes.

This is one of two red plum trees we have at one end of the garden.
The second as well as the first are in dire need of a proper pruning. They both were supposed to be green gage trees but their first blooming and producing proved that to be wrong. We got large red plums that are super sweet. Good but would have preferred the Green Gage. I’ll have to get some seed from my Aunt Carrie.
Eddie pruned one and I took the other one. My pruning was a bit more drastic than his. The trees are already full of buds and we will have freezing weather in March and April.
You can see the buds and the trees are loaded. I doubt we’ll get much fruit because February is not the usual budding time.

I just don’t understand what is going on with these crazy weather patterns. Ice and rain one week and the next rain and 50* – 70*. It just doesn’t make any sense and it’ll be a challenge to get any fruit in 2023.

The Yard Is A Mess

Winter time just makes me so much more anxious for spring!!!

What a mess to address as soon as winter is OVER!!
The yard is full of debris which will probably take me at least four days to clean up once the weather is agreeable!
Every area of the yard is full of leaves, maple tree limbs, and dead foliage.
The gazebo is full of foliage from the moon flowers and wire grass. This will take the least amount of time to clean up.
The area in front of the porch will be the hardest work because the hosta’s need to be divided.
I let the leaves lay through the fall to add just a little cover for the perennials.

The best part, I’ll be outside digging in the dirt which is my favorite pastime in the spring and that not too far off.

Preparing for Spring Greenhouse

Seeds for Christmas and seeds not used last year put me way ahead of the game. Winter has not been nice though so there are repairs to do and changes inside to think about. I’m ahead of the game in other aspects though! I sterilized all of my pots, every last one of them, and that’s a big chore in the spring.

I love it when the seeds arrive.

Needs are few, including Pro Mix, new shade cloth, repair the roof and one window, and kill two sand briars that made it through the four-inch layer of gravel last summer and are still alive after scalding them with boiling water, spraying with vinegar and pouring salt water all around the base of the weeds. Nothing worked, they’re still alive!!! Those are hateful weeds!! Deciding on which heat system to use, when to actually start the growing processes and making a canning and freezing plan are things also on my mind every day that the sun is out.

Spring can’t get here soon enough!!

I’m still sifting through my seed catalogs for four new plants to try this year which is a project on my Bucket List. I know what vegetables we like and that do well here so the new plants will probably be in the form of flowers or herbs and I’m leaning towards the herb group.

I have lots of fruit and nut seeds that I’ll probably start first because they’re simple and quick to start. They are in the dormant, dark and cold area now to give them a good start. I got apple root stock and almond trees started and planted last year. This spring I’m leaning toward more apple, blueberries and hazelnuts, three of each. I’m not planting as much of this for 2023 because it does take up a lot of space and need to be watched just like anything else in the greenhouse. Of course, the big problem is I have all of these good intentions that seem to fly out the greenhouse doors once I get started!! I do love to play in the dirt and grow anything and everything!!!