Moon and Maple Sugaring
Mar. 29th, 2011 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fitfoolI was bemoaning the face that I hadn't ever taken a cool moon photo like this where there are other things in the photo besides the moon in focus. Anyhow, B said, "That's not true...you got some nice photos that day in Central Square." For awhile there, we would go places and pass my camera back and forth taking pictures. It's a lot of fun to see how which things we focused on and how our photos came out. Anyhow, I went digging through my computer and sure enough, photos of the moon! Seems like you need to try to photograph the moon while it's still light out if you want to have any hope of getting other things in the picture too. Here's one that B took:
I did take one shot like that but most of my photos of the moon either come out as a blurry spot. On a good night, I'll get one like this: (Came out pretty well for not using a tripod)
So long as I've started posting photos, here are a few more I found behind the lj-cut. There are 2 shots of buildings in Central Square (Cambridge, MA) and 4 from the day we went to a maple sugaring house in New Hampshire.
I like how the rooftop of this building looks. It's the one next to the First Baptist Church.
For a few years, I went to this church every week -- to go swing dancing at a weekly dance called Ken's Place.
They charged only $5 admission and there was a live band to dance to. Granted, the band was just there practicing so some bands really treated it like a practice and would go back and do a song over or restart a song midway through. But most seemed to treat it like a run-through rehearsal. If I was in a good mood, I'd go to the dance since I was happy. If I was in a bad mood, I'd go to the dance since I couldn't help feeling better afterwards. If I was sick, I'd still go to the dance -- but I'd duck upstairs to the walled-off balcony room and lie on the floor there, listening to the band. Good times.
After![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
minxy_baby mentioned it was maple sugaring season, I hurriedly searched online and found that Wilson's Sugar House in NH was having an open house. So B and I drove over to check it out. This is the shack that houses the big evaporating machine.
Here we see tubes coming from several trees going into a big collection barrel. When B first heard that places tubed their maple trees, he wondered how they were getting the syrup to flow through the tubes instead of clogging them all up. That was before he knew about the fact that the sap was more like slightly sweet water and it had to be boiled down to become syrup.
Some of the trees just had sap buckets on them. You drill a small hole in the tree, put a spout into the hole, and then the sap drips out into the bucket. They then bring all that sap into the sugar shack and pour it into their wood-fired evaporator. It takes 30 to 40 gallons of maple sap to make one single gallon of pure maple syrup! On their evaporator, it takes them 10-11 hours in the evaporator to boil it down to the consistency of maple syrup. I'm starting to see why it's so expensive.
Here's a close-up of the sap dripping into the bucket.
I was surprised to see how watery the sap was. I had pictured pine sap myself and that stuff's sticky. I knew maple sap was more liquid than that but I still had expected it to look more like it was oozing than dripping. Apparently there's just a small window of opportunity when conditions are right for collecting maple sap. They need to have freezing nights and warm days (up into the 40s Fahrenheit) in order for the sap to run. So in NH, that's basically late February through March. (though lately, even the days seem pretty cold here.)
The happiest discovery of the day was sampling grade A vs. grade B maple syrup. In the U.S., Grade A syrups also get classified as Light Amber, Medium Amber, and Dark Amber. Then you move on to Grade B syrup which is even darker than the Grade A Dark Amber stuff. Traditionally, grade B syrup was used for cooking and baking because it had a stronger maple flavor and thus could stand up to the cooking. Oh but have you tasted it? It's packed with maple flavor and didn't seem to be quite as sweet as the grade A syrup. I think she said that the sap used to make grade B syrup had less sugar in it and needed to boil more sap for longer to get it down to the viscosity needed to call it syrup. It's a little thicker than the grade A syrup as well.
Went home with a pint of maple syrup, still warm from being bottled that day. Now I need to work on making pancakes. Mine taste ok but have yet to ever achieve fluffy pancake texture. Pancakes and waffles. That's about all I've ever used maple syrup on. We've been sampling our syrup straight until I get around to making some pancakes. What else do you use maple syrup for?
I did take one shot like that but most of my photos of the moon either come out as a blurry spot. On a good night, I'll get one like this: (Came out pretty well for not using a tripod)
So long as I've started posting photos, here are a few more I found behind the lj-cut. There are 2 shots of buildings in Central Square (Cambridge, MA) and 4 from the day we went to a maple sugaring house in New Hampshire.
I like how the rooftop of this building looks. It's the one next to the First Baptist Church.
For a few years, I went to this church every week -- to go swing dancing at a weekly dance called Ken's Place.
They charged only $5 admission and there was a live band to dance to. Granted, the band was just there practicing so some bands really treated it like a practice and would go back and do a song over or restart a song midway through. But most seemed to treat it like a run-through rehearsal. If I was in a good mood, I'd go to the dance since I was happy. If I was in a bad mood, I'd go to the dance since I couldn't help feeling better afterwards. If I was sick, I'd still go to the dance -- but I'd duck upstairs to the walled-off balcony room and lie on the floor there, listening to the band. Good times.
After
minxy_baby mentioned it was maple sugaring season, I hurriedly searched online and found that Wilson's Sugar House in NH was having an open house. So B and I drove over to check it out. This is the shack that houses the big evaporating machine. Here we see tubes coming from several trees going into a big collection barrel. When B first heard that places tubed their maple trees, he wondered how they were getting the syrup to flow through the tubes instead of clogging them all up. That was before he knew about the fact that the sap was more like slightly sweet water and it had to be boiled down to become syrup.
Some of the trees just had sap buckets on them. You drill a small hole in the tree, put a spout into the hole, and then the sap drips out into the bucket. They then bring all that sap into the sugar shack and pour it into their wood-fired evaporator. It takes 30 to 40 gallons of maple sap to make one single gallon of pure maple syrup! On their evaporator, it takes them 10-11 hours in the evaporator to boil it down to the consistency of maple syrup. I'm starting to see why it's so expensive.
Here's a close-up of the sap dripping into the bucket.
I was surprised to see how watery the sap was. I had pictured pine sap myself and that stuff's sticky. I knew maple sap was more liquid than that but I still had expected it to look more like it was oozing than dripping. Apparently there's just a small window of opportunity when conditions are right for collecting maple sap. They need to have freezing nights and warm days (up into the 40s Fahrenheit) in order for the sap to run. So in NH, that's basically late February through March. (though lately, even the days seem pretty cold here.)
The happiest discovery of the day was sampling grade A vs. grade B maple syrup. In the U.S., Grade A syrups also get classified as Light Amber, Medium Amber, and Dark Amber. Then you move on to Grade B syrup which is even darker than the Grade A Dark Amber stuff. Traditionally, grade B syrup was used for cooking and baking because it had a stronger maple flavor and thus could stand up to the cooking. Oh but have you tasted it? It's packed with maple flavor and didn't seem to be quite as sweet as the grade A syrup. I think she said that the sap used to make grade B syrup had less sugar in it and needed to boil more sap for longer to get it down to the viscosity needed to call it syrup. It's a little thicker than the grade A syrup as well.
Went home with a pint of maple syrup, still warm from being bottled that day. Now I need to work on making pancakes. Mine taste ok but have yet to ever achieve fluffy pancake texture. Pancakes and waffles. That's about all I've ever used maple syrup on. We've been sampling our syrup straight until I get around to making some pancakes. What else do you use maple syrup for?
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 09:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 09:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 10:01 am (UTC)I'm sure there are lots of recipes out there, though...like this one:
http://homecooking.about.com/od/vegetablerecipes/r/blv324.htm
:)
I've never gotten a decent moon picture.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 10:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 10:42 am (UTC)There are a ton of recipes using Maple Syrup on Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen website.
The first one I saw that struck me was Maple Almond Granola.
You can also use it in baked beans, cookies, on sweet potatoes.
(sorry-my brain wasn't quite awake when I put down just ham earlier)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 10:07 pm (UTC)Moon
Date: 2011-03-29 11:09 am (UTC)Re: Moon
Date: 2011-04-02 03:23 pm (UTC)Re: Moon
Date: 2011-04-02 03:25 pm (UTC)Re: Moon
Date: 2011-04-14 10:07 pm (UTC)Re: Moon
Date: 2011-04-14 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 11:45 am (UTC)Occasionally I make French toast, for which good maple syrup is divine. I have a friend in in the northeast who sends me syrupy goodness every so often and oh, is it ever delectable!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 12:19 pm (UTC)In a recent issue of Saveur there was an article about maple suruping in Quebec. The people there drizzled it on tomatoes and roasted them, baked it into Maple Syrup Pie aka Sugar Pie, simmered flour-butter dumplings in it, put it on ham... I like using it like honey, in drinks and sometimes even on bread with butter.
Don't forget to store it in the fridge; it can sometimes go moldy if kept on the counter.
(I love the maple syrup here in New England. That and the apples.)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 12:29 pm (UTC)We went to a maple sugaring things a few years back at one of the Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuaries and it was very cool. There is a lot of water content in the sap and it takes a lot of it to make a little syrup. Now I understand why the good stuff is so expensive.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 09:08 pm (UTC)As far as grade A v. B goes - usually you end up with a dark amber (more like a B) toward the end of the season, when you have more residue in your evaporator (rig used for boiling). Often people will start with a Grade A "fancy" and end the season with a grade B. Or, if you boil it longer (or boil, stop, boil, stop) you'll end up with B.
The brix (sugar content) is an important factor - an average tree has about 2% sugar and therefore takes about 42 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup (you divide 86 by the brix to get the exact amount) you can find trees with up to 3.5 or 4% though. PLUS, if you take any frozen water (ice) off the top of your buckets or lines you'll be left with a greater concentration of sugar and it'll take less gallons of sap.
In addition to weather (cold nights/warm days), air pressure, wind direction, south facing buckets - for sun, etc. all impacts maple syrup production. In the spring (when there are buds on the trees) the sap is still running, but the sugar is all going to the buds/leaves, so the sap would make pretty gross syrup - thus the season (warm enough to run, but too cold for buds!).
SO interesting, right? I think it is! (Sorry - I wrote a lot!)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-30 04:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 03:13 pm (UTC)