Just a quick note to all of you, my friends, family and faithful readers. I said I'd let you know all the triumphs and failures of living a self-sufficient life right...so here goes.
Today was BEAUTIFUL!!! The weather was calm, 15 degrees and sunny! (Right now it's still warm but very windy) The maple trees yielded 8 litres of sap today so I put it into a big stock pot and boiled it away. I currently have a smaller pot on the stove of concentrated sap that needs to finish boiling down and it's on the stove at the same time.
Well, the girls and I got distracted. I'd been checking the pots every hour and the last time I checked it there was still about 3 litres of sap in the big pot. The phone rang and time passed and then we noticed the smell of burned sugar. Running onto the kitchen I quickly found it filled with light white smoke and stinking of sugar. Yes, the syrup, as it concentrated, boiled away faster and faster and we weren't watching. Even though in my post about making maple syrup I point out that you really have to pay attention. Well I grabbed the pot of thick blackened tar like syrup and headed for the back door. Putting the pot outside to cool I also added some water to help lift the sugar off the pot so I can clean it later. So the very first batch of syrup for 2012 that was technically finished turns out to be a blackened mess. The second smaller pot is still doing just fine. Ahhh, the pain of failure! Still, lesson learned. And now we're laughing about it.
We're still optimistic that the next batch will be delicious and eaten for breakfast tomorrow!
And we're laughing about it too. After all, you can't get too caught up in everything that doesn't work out. Just learn and move on.
Thought you'd get a kick out of hearing about my failure making syrup. lol Hope Spring is treating you all well and that the coming rain is just the beginning of a beautiful Spring in Nova Scotia. Wonderful things are happening, and we will share them with you later.
We had a dream, like so many others before us, to live a simple and sustainable life on our own organic farm... so we drove from Vancouver Island, British Columbia to the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, and we've been here nearly 6 years. We love life, learning, and sharing with others. Follow our adventures as we build a vibrant small family farm and work towards self-sufficiency using a combination of traditional methods, permaculture and original ideas.
I love this story! I bought my own kids the cheap stuff since its so expensive to buy maple syrup at the store, but the other day I invested in the real stuff - managed to slip it in unnoticed and no complaints. I wonder what spring will be like in NS. My memories from growing up in Hfx was that spring was very brief - it always seemed to go from winter straight to summer. Here in Victoria the spring never ceases to thrill me. BUT there is no substitue for the fall in NS. It is wonderful! Good luck getting your seeds in and moving ahead with all your plans, big and small! Linnaea
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