Live And Let Die

During these difficult economic times, we New Hampshire folks have to come together and help each other out. This Summer, when the 'out of staters' come back to their vacation houses here in the Great White North... it's going to be important that we show a little compassion. Some folks will be having trouble paying for the necessities of life... you know, the kid's riding lessons,the wife's tennis pro, the country club fees, the live-in nanny, the maids and butlers... I mean, do you know what it costs to tune up a Bentley!!

So, this Summer... whether it's at the gas station or the recycling center or the local sushi establishment... you may just bump into one of these poor folks... and this year it's far more likely they may actually speak with you... ya know, "morning"... or "how'z it going?" This is really a cry for help! You know damned well, under normal circumstances these folks would never give you the time of day... so lets all show them what New Hampshire is all about. Please consider making an anonymous donation of a million or two to help keep Buffy & Little Regis out of the soup kitchen this year.

We'll all sleep better knowing that when Summer is finally over, these poor slobs can still make it to Tahoe for the Christmas season. Thank you.

Sticky Fingers

Well, it's been a long while waiting for Spring to rear her elusive head, and nothing says SPRING in New Hampshire like the smell of boiling maple syrup. We only have a few sugar maples here on the farm... far more oak and red maple. My neighbors down the road at Delrossi's, our local high quality Italian trattoria & purveyor of acoustic guitars, banjos & fiddles, are good enough to let me tap some of their generations old trees. I boil sap the 'old fashioned' way... in a century old cast iron cauldron, with a wood fire.

It takes on average, about 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of good syrup... but these old trees must give a higher sugar quality sap, because I always seem to get an extra pint or more from that same 40 gallons.

Jack has been through this before, and knows this is going to be a long day. Today, we started our fire at 7AM, hoping to get a jump on things.

Here we've got a good boil going....

The boys & I pose for a photo as afternoon passes... we ended with about 4 gallons of reduced sap by about 7:30. The next day we finished it off slowly on the big wood stove in the barn. This time around, I started with about 48 gallons of sap and ended up with a gallon and a half of dark amber syrup. The weather has been perfect lately, 20's at night and 40's during the day. Perfect temps for a good sap run. If all goes well, I'll get in 2 0r 3 more boils like this one. That should keep us in syrup for more than a year, with some extra for X-mas gifts!

Not everything around the farm is as exciting as boiling sap... but get your rest now, Jack...next month the piglets will be here!