It has turned into a great year for maple syrup production. The year started strong but quickly went into a constant pattern of poor weather: Too cold, too windy, snowing, raining, etc. There were a few days in a row the gusts were recorded at 30 mph and I’m pretty sure I have a bucket or two that some squirrel is now using as a nesting site. No idea where they went so the buckets were replaced.
I’ve come close to perfecting my bottling.
I finish the syrup and pour it into a glass container.
I then set up the filter and prefilter in this interesting wire rack setup made to maximize your use of the area on the filter (and not clogging everything at the bottom).
After the syrup filters through the paper, I can take my time bottling. I pour the now filtered syrup into a electric tea kettle that I can control the temperature on, set it for 170 degrees, and can carefully fill some bottles. The tea kettle will hold roughly 1/2 gallon, or 4 pints. It will hold a little more than that, but not enough to fill 5 pints.
I picked up these new flask bottle looking syrup bottles thinking these would make great gifts. My wife usually sends stuff to people at her work or we will make some home made gift baskets with jellies, jams, honey, syrup, etc.
It has been a great season, which keeps up late at night and why the blog has gone unattended for a short time. Looking to end the season probably tomorrow. Warm nights are on the horizon, moths are around the buckets… Everything in nature is pointing to the end of the season. I will count up the syrup numbers when we finish to see how we did.
