Going Maple Syruping

We had a fun, relaxing weekend at the cabin, as per usual. This time of year is a bit tricky because it's still pretty chilly outside (40's and cloudy, mostly), with spurts of rain (or snowflakes, UGH!) and very muddy roads and trails. It's no longer safe to be out on the icy lakes and most of the snow is melted on the ground, so ice fishing and snowmobiling are out, too.

This weekend, Andi's dad invited us to visit his friend's cabin which is about 20 miles from ours for a day of maple syruping. For several years now, Andi's dad, Jim, has volunteered his time to help his friends collect and cook pure maple syrup. Neither Andi or I have ever seen the process up close so we thought it'd be something fun and interesting to occupy our Saturday.

After Tory's morning nap, we hopped in the car and drove to the maple syrup spot near Shell Lake, Wisconsin. Jim's friend's have a cabin there and they've also established quite a rustic maple syrup operation. With little investment in money and lots of man-hours, they've been making pure maple syrup for the last five years. Every 30 gallons of sap collected produces about 1 gallon of maple syrup so it takes a lot of patience to collect all the sap from maple trees and cook it down to become real syrup. This sugar shack is where all the magic happens.

Tory and Grandpa Jim - ready for a day of maple syruping

It was drizzling outside so we didn't spend much time walking around the woods to look at the buckets collecting sap. Jim and his friends would make a sweep through the woods later in the evening to gather all the sap collected.

Inside the sugar shack, Jim and his friends were cooking gallons of sap in a simplified science. The wood-burning stove boiled down two big pans of sap. Each stock pot on top held more sap ready to take a plunge in the boiling pans below. By the end of the day, the sap will have cooked down to fill one stock pot. Then, the pot will be moved into the house to continue simmering overnight.

The Sugar Shack was country cozy, with a few chairs gathered around the stove and pots and grates hanging from the walls. Jim and his friends sit in the shack, drink coffee or beers and talk for hours.

Skimming the foam off the boiling sap

It was a neat process to see up close; a labor of love for people who enjoy the outdoors. Andi said he learned one thing about maple syruping: he'd much rather pay $8 for a jar of pure maple syrup than spend 8 hours boiling down the sap. It takes a lot of patience and time to achieve a finished product.

Watching out the window of the Sugar Shack

There was no maple syrup for us to take home as a parting gift, but Jim promised to bring some back home for us to try. We did sneak a taste of some maple syrup leftover from last year's batch and it was sweet and delicious. I look forward to smothering it over homemade waffles at the cabin for weekends to come.