My Second on the Second is About Food

Hi everyone. Happy March 2. 

Today is Food Wednesdays over at Kathy's blog, Hummingbird Studio at the Lake where we share a food related post. It is also  Second on the Second over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog, Altered Book Lover Blog where we share a post we have already posted at some time in the past.

To join these 2 challenges,  I am sharing  2 older posts from March of 2018, both which have to do with a seasonal specialty that is in full swing right now in the Northeast of the US. It is Maple Syrup season. This is the time that the maple sap runs, and that sap carries the sugars which make maple syrup so yummy.  

I'm not sure exactly when in the spring other places (that have maple syrup season) start their sap season and of course, even though you can make syrup from some other types of hardwood trees, you can only make maple syrup where maple trees, especially sugar maples, flourish.

Here's a journal page I had created showing some trees being tapped. I can't join Valerie's spring challenge at Art Journal Journey because my page has been posted before, but this is a sign of spring here in New Hampshire. 

And I know some people can't use a lot of Maple Syrup because of its sugar content, but other than sugar, it does have some nutritional value.

These first 2 photos are from a post on March 16, 2018. (Sweet Friday).

 I live on an unpaved gravel road in the woods. My road is about 3 miles or just under 5  km long, with a few scattered houses on it. There's also a lot of land that is part of the Society of Protection of New Hampshire forests so it is not developed. Yet on my road there are 2 "industries": a sugar shack where maple sap is collected to make maple syrup and also we have a small microbrewery on a private small scale farm. 

Today let me share a bit of sugar making with you. These next photos come from March 26, 2018 (Maple Weekend). I had been out walking that morning and stopped by to see what was going on in the sugar shack. 

Here's the sugar shack. It used to be more rundown, but then it was leased from the land owner to a couple of "guys" who  fixed it up and now use it for maple sugar production.

These big tanks hold the sap collected from sugar maple trees. Unlike in my sketch where buckets are hung from metal taps hammered into the trees, the new way is to use this blue piping so the sap runs directly from the trees into the collection tank. Then it is piped from the tank into the sugar shack, where it is processed in maple syrup.

The small process/old fashioned way to process the sap is to keep a wood fire going under your steamer. It heats the maple sap and gets rid of much of the water in it. You can see it steaming away. What you are then left with is your maple syrup.

Then the maple syrup is drained into these cans. It take 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.

It is then bottled to sell or even dehydrated even more to make maple sugar.

My daughter's fiance's parents have a sugar shack and tap the maple trees on their property. There's been some talk we might go out there and spend a day helping them do some sap processing. I think that would be fun, but we'll see if that happens. The season for sugaring isn't very long because it only happens when there are cold nights and slightly warm days (but not too warm as the trees stop running sap then). 

That's it for me today. Hope the new month is treating you well.