Last summer Joshua and I headed into the woods to mark our own Maple trees. Armed with a Canadian flag and pictures of types of Maple trees, we started scouting in the middle of the front yard. Joshua spotted our first tree. Using blue plastic marking tape, we tied the tape around every tree we found that we could tap for sugar season this year.
We found 39 trees on the homestead that could be tapped, 14 of those are sugar maples. So then I decided to gather the two different saps separate in order to sell off the batch made from the sugar maples as the syrup is a better quality. I see that syrup is going for $88 dollars a gallon, so I hope to sell some to pay for the new barrel I had to buy and cover other minor cost. I had wish listed most of my supplies so I consider those as gifts in order to keep my SS fund above $1K.
Make the task of gathering the sap easier, not knowing how much snow will be on the round, we mapped out our trail around the property to gather the sap. Than I decided it would to our advantage to clear and trim out the path around the property. We removed old logs, used some as firewood, cut limbs below head level. We drove the tractor around to decided which approach would be the safest for us.
As the cold weather is here now, the smoker is cured and ready for meat. This years bacon video will include a smoking how to as well. In order to the best use of the smoker, we are going to smoke the sausage and bacon together but do two separate videos. As I type this, I have bacon in the fridge curing...
Its a simple 3 ingredient cure and any one can make/smoke their own!!!
it is that time again, well at least for awhile, tapped some trees today and yesterday, sap was flowing strong with this warm up
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