No saps in The Last Green Valley or at this maple sugar farm!

As I mentioned earlier this week, The Last Green Valley scheduled a tour of a maple sugar farm in Eastford, CT this morning.

I went!

The thing I was most curious about was the actual sap, and collecting it - moving it from place to place....

After 25 years of helping out at a Christmas Tree Farm, I am used to sap that is sticky as all heck. So my question was how do you get all that sticky, sticky sap from the bucket attached to the trees, into a different container on a vehicle, and then into the boiling vessel in the sugar shack. The sap that I know and love (from Christmas trees) would stick to everything, and by the time you got it back to the sugar shack to boil, you'd have nothing left but sap stuck to everything, including yourself!

Well, well - come to find out, the maple sap is much more watery that pine, fir, spruce sap.

I also found out how short the sap season is, what affects the sweetness, and lots more. Like less than 1% of all sugar maples in CT are being tapped! So that leaves a lot of opportunity for those who are inclined.

Here is a great link to the Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut. There is tons of info on maple sugaring!

However, if you enjoy learning by doing, as I do, then find a tour and take it!

Or.......become a member of The Last Green Valley (dirt cheap at $25 annually for individuals) and come on a tour with me next year!

Check out all of my pictures today on my facebook page by clicking here. 
(I am on facebook as Marcy B. Putnamaniac Dawley).

I am a Putnamaniac because I am no sap! And neither are the hard working and patience people who make CT Maple Syrup!