Sunday Reruns - Sugar Shack

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It's Sunday again, and you know what THAT means!?! It's time for Sunday Favorites!!!

Sunday Favorites are RERUNS, not current posts - - - if you want to participate, just repost something you previously posted "back in the day."

Thanks so much to Chari over at Happy to Design for hosting this meme, "Sunday Favorites." You may click on the link to find the rules and see more favorite posts.

As spring is finally arriving on the frozen trundra, we are all getting a little "sappy." In honor of that, I'm rerunning this sweet post.

Sugar Shack in the Sugar Bush
(First posted on July 2, 2009)

My cousin Doug, who also lives in central Wisconsin, is a master of the "Sugar Bush."

The sugar bush refers to maple trees, the collecting of their sap, and the reducing of that sap to produce the delectable delight we all know as maple syrup.

I just asked dad what a "maple syrup maker" would be called. Dad said, "You call him your cousin." Hmmmmm - - - wonder where I got my sense of humor??? (Actually, I was doubly blessed in that department as mom was quite funny and witty too.)

Now back to our NEW "Hero-of-the-Sugar-Bush.

This "sugar shack" to which I referred was NOT an outhouse as some of you PROBABLY thought - - - come on, admit it, you THOUGHT it - - - but IS in fact the storage site for all the "stuff" needed to make the syrup, including lots of buckets for collecting sap, spiles (which you might think of as spouts which are stuck into the tree in the spring) and a long narrow pan in which the sap will be reduced.

In the woods behind the sugar shack are lots of sugar maples. In the spring when the sap is ready to "run," Doug places a spile in each tree and hangs a bucket to collect the sap.

Once there is sap in the bucket, he pours it into this stainless steel pot which can hold 200 gallons of sap. All this hauling buckets to collect sap is done by hand.

Once reduced, these 200 gallons of sap will make 6 gallons of syrup. That's right - - - only SIX gallons of syrup for every 200 gallons of sap. So, the next time you are about to complain about the PRICE on a bottle of pure maple syrup, think of the WORK involved to GET it, and pay the price. Syrup producers all over the world will thank you.

Doug reduces his syrup over a wood fire in the time honored and historical way.

And as an added benefit of cutting, chopping, and collecting all this wood - - - he is able to HEAT his home on subartic Wisconsin winter nights with this:

He says there is nothing better than getting thoroughly cold shoveling a driveway and THEN coming in to soak up the warmth of his Franklin stove.

But I digress - - -back to the bush - - -

This is Doug's fire pit over which he reduces the sap into syrup. He places the long, trough-like sap filled pan over the fire and watches it boil down. The MOMENT it reaches 212 degrees fahrenheit, he pulls it off the fire because it is finished. Longer and it will be ruined and go to sugar.

He bottles it hot so the lid will seal down, preserving it perfectly.

Pure liquid gold.

Last season Doug collected 1400 gallons of sap. From that he produced 46 gallons of syrup.

People hear about his syrup word-of-mouth and they come in droves to buy it.

He said he is a softy and ends up selling more than he really wants to.

I didn't have the heart to ask for a pint - - - though I must confess, I was coveting one in my heart!!!

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