Sugaring

We've harvested several gallons of sap at this point.  

The sap to syrup ratio is 40:1, roughly.  Today I put 3/4 quart of syrup in a jar.  

I also harvested the sap buckets.  It filled the big kettle with two and three-fourths quarts of sap to go into the pan when it boils down a little.

We've been boiling the sap on the woodstove.  It's actually a really great use of our resources.  Since we have the woodstove going anyway, it just makes sense to let it do the work.

The sap won't get to a hard boil until it gets close to syrup.  Basically, it's more of a slow, evaporating, simmer, which doesn't fill the house with steam and fog up the windows.  It also gives us a much lighter syrup than what we normally get when we boil it outside.  

I'm hoping we end up with at least a gallon of syrup.   That would be nice.