Another winter project this year was tapping the sugar maple trees with the hopes of fresh, home-made maple syrup. So far, we have tapped 9 trees in various locations around the property. Two behind the dining room of the inn. One just off the driveway. Two by the pond. One outside the workshop & garage. One in the woods. And one just south of the vegetable plot. So far, they have yielded approximately 36 gallons of maple sap.
The sap is then boiled down and filtered – voila maple syrup! However, the sap to syrup ratio is 50:1, which means we should get over a half gallon. Our first batch came out a beautiful color, about 1.35 liters in all. We added this to our pantry of preserved fruits from earlier in the season, which includes pear jam, ginger pear jam, grape jelly, hardy kiwi jam, and even a small batch of wine! Everything was made from fruit grown on the property.
