Thursday, March 17, 2011

Forty-to-One Odds

The sap is running!  The sap is running!  When it comes out of the tree, maple sap looks pretty much like water.  And it tastes pretty much like water – you can just barely taste the sugar.  Which makes you wonder – who was the first person to say “Hey, why don’t I try collecting the water out of this tree and boiling it for half the day to see if something fun happens to it?” 
Now that we’ve got some sap movement, we’ve loaded up the bright blue 55 gallon plastic collection tank in the trailer of the four-wheeler to start collecting.  It takes about an hour to get around to all the trees, empty the buckets and get them rehung.  On a good day, we could fill the tank four or five times.  But it’s early, so yesterday’s haul was only about 10 gallons, and today was just over 5 – hardly worth boiling.
Forty to one.  No, that’s not the odds of you winning your NCAA pool.  It’s the odds on “Maple Madness” - the ratio of fresh sap to finished syrup is 40 to 1.  Well, 40 to 1 for red maple trees, and 35 to 1 for sugar maples.  We’re collecting from both.  So for every time we fill the 55 gallon tank, we get a little more than a gallon of syrup.  For those who aren’t in the mood for math problems, that means the past two days’ sap collection will net us a measly quart and a half of syrup.  <sigh>