With the overly dry weather, I wasn’t sure what we’d end up with in the way of blackberries this year. There was a nice bloom in the spring, but we thought the berries that developed might be small and dry. Instead, I noticed they were starting to ripen last week, and they were still pretty good. Maybe a little smaller than normal, and not as many as last year, but still good, and still a lot. I picked just under a quart in about half an hour, so not too bad. We probably won’t end up freezing many bags, but we should have enough for fresh eating for a couple weeks, and maybe a few jars of jam. As always, nature never ceases to amaze.
It’s ramp season. For those unaware of what ramps are (I didn’t know until a few years ago either), they’re a member of the allium (onion) family, and are also called wild leeks. As far as I know, they’re only found through foraging, and can’t be domesticated easily. They have a pretty short season, but it comes with a lot of publicity. Ramps have been popular in Appalachia for years (since they grow all over there, and even up here), but more recently have become kind of a chic, foodie food. As such, they can carry a high price tag, so they’re often over-harvested, and many states have now places limits on what you can pick (sustainable is said to be no more than 1/5 or even 1/10 of a given plot, since it’ll take 4-5 years for them to be ready for harvest).
We’ve never had ramps, so when they were available for a few short weeks at the market, we picked up a couple bunches. Most of them were planted in the woods (since they’re pulled up with roots intact), in the hope that some will take hold, and we’ll eventually have a few patches of our own to harvest. They are quite pungent, kind of a cross between onions and garlic (and, some people say, smelly shoes). I’d recommend cooking with them on a day when you can open the windows.
Since they’re more or less interchangeable with onions, they’re very versatile. For this application, I simply diced and sautéed a bunch with some of our New Creation bacon, then mixed that into a bowl of eight eggs, and baked the whole thing in a greased pie dish for about 30 minutes at 325 F.
Given how much they stunk up the kitchen while I was cutting them, I thought the dish may be overpoweringly ramp-y, but the cooking must mellow the flavor a little, because it really wasn’t that bad, and I used a lot. No kissing for the remainder of the evening, but at least it was a good dinner 🙂
Learning how to make maple syrup is such a fun thing to do. While it may seem like a daunting task (and yes, there is a lot of boiling time involved), the end result is more than worth it!
I was able to spend several hours on both Saturday and Sunday boiling down some of the sap we’ve collected. Saturday was windy and snowy, but Sunday was sunny and calm, so it wasn’t totally miserable. I’m guessing I made it through a little over 30 gallons over the two days, though I haven’t finished the second batch yet. If you haven’t yet made your own, let me show you how to make maple syrup (or at least my inexpensive method).
(Not sure how to get the sap in the first place? Learn how to tap maple trees here. Basically, you’re going to drill holes [generally 5/16″ but may vary depending on your spouts] about 1/2 – 1″ into the south-facing side of the tree, then gently tap the spout in with a rubber mallet. If it’s a sunny day and you found a good tree, the sap should start dripping almost instantaneously. Hang the buckets and listen to the drip, drip, drip.)
This was the first time I’ve boiled outside, so I had to set up a rough evaporator. I picked up a couple steam table pans to use as my evaporating vessels, but needed some place to keep them over a heat source.
I started with a double layer of standard cinder blocks formed to make three (almost) sides. Space them to accommodate the pans, so the lip will rest on the edge. Try to keep them as straight and level as possible – I found a relatively flat spot of ground, but didn’t go to extravagant lengths to make it perfectly level, just close enough.
Along the back, leave a space for some type of chimney. I made this out of single (8″ x 8″ x 8″) cinder blocks, and knocked the front out of the very bottom one to allow for a place for the smoke to vent. Make sure it extends at least several feet above the top of the sap. Maybe hard to explain, but just think of how a regular fireplace/chimney works. Once the pans were laid in place, I still had some gap along the top. To cover this and the front, I had some scrap pieces of cement board from the shower that fit the holes pretty well. Cement board doesn’t seem to be highly rated for heat, because the top piece was pretty crumbly after two days of burning.
Boiling on Saturday
Preferably, the whole setup should be pretty airtight, with a small opening in the front to allow fresh air in, and the exhaust and smoke rising out the chimney. This will minimize the smoky flavor that the syrup takes on. Mine was certainly not airtight, but the chimney worked pretty well in taking most of the smoke out that way. Maybe next year I’ll make a permanent structure, and mortar all the cracks closed.
And on Sunday. Much nicer weather.
Once it gets boiling, it can go pretty quickly – I had to top off the pans fairly regularly, and add a couple more logs to the fire at least every half hour. It’s more hands-on and does require regular attention, and is not as easy as just putting it on the stove to boil, but it does go a lot quicker, and it’s nice to have an excuse to get outside.
Supervising from the warmth. Although if he had a say, he’d be outside with me.
All in all, it was fun to try a new method of boiling, and I’d say the first attempt was a success. Of course, this isn’t the only or best way of doing it. You can use an old barrel, splurge on a fancy evaporator, or go old-fashioned with a kettle hanging over the fire.
When it boiled down enough outside, I brought it in to finish on the stove. From the first batch (about half of the sap), I ended up with just under a half-gallon. It’s always amazing to me that you can turn something that’s basically water into such a treat. Now that you know how to make maple syrup for yourself, why don’t you give it a shot?
I finally got around to tapping maple trees last weekend. The weather was great on Friday, and so-so since then, with some rain and snow. I’ve still managed to collect about 30 gallons of sap, and we’re looking to do a boil this weekend. I still have to build some sort of evaporator, but I think we’ll be alright. If the weather keeps up and the sap keeps flowing, maybe we’ll do more than one boil this year. Probably not more than two though – there’s lots of other stuff that needs to be done!
To tap, you’ll need a few spouts (the part that actually gets tapped into the tree), a few buckets, and a drill. Drill holes (generally 5/16″ but may vary depending on your spouts) about 1/2 – 1″ into the south-facing side of the tree, then gently tap the spout in with a rubber mallet. If it’s a sunny day and you found a good tree, the sap should start dripping almost instantaneously. Hang the buckets, then let ’em drip, err, rip. Depending on the size of the bucket and how the sap is flowing, you may need to empty them more than once a day!
The weather here over the past several days has been perfect for getting the sap flowing – below freezing at night, sunny and warmer during the day. This has left me in a conundrum. It’s still fairly early, but with the way the weather has been, this could be the best stretch we have all season. I’m not really prepared either – still waiting on some supplies, and I was going to try to make a bigger evaporating pan.
So I guess I’m going to hold off for now. It does look like it’s going to get back to more typical winter weather for the rest of the week, but I’ll just have to watch the forecast. We’re also in a pretty heavy maple syrup area, and so far, I haven’t noticed anyone else tapping. Crazy winter, what little we had.
Anyone else have good sap weather? Have you started tapping yet?
