Maple Syrup-Straight From the Tree

 

     Saturday morning was cold, gray and snow flurries were blowing in the air. Somehow, it seemed like the perfect weather to explore something we had never seen before...the making of maple syrup. We have lived here almost 10 years and until we read an article in our paper last Friday, we had no idea that we could drive 20 miles and see this done.

 

     Kent Phillips and his family have been making maple syrup since the early 1900's. Kent started following his father (who was born in 1915) around as a child and now he is helped by his daughter and her family. He calls the barn that houses the equipment the "sugar shack" and that describes it very well.

 

 

     The syrup is gathered into these blue plastic bags, although I understand that if a tree has multiple taps on it, a bucket is still used. They go through the woods on four wheelers, collecting the sap which is turned into the syrup. From what they explained to us, it requires 40 gallons of sap to boil down to 1 gallon of syrup.

 

     This is the sap after it is collected. It had a crust of ice on top and really looked like dirty water. My husband tasted it (not me...nope...gotta boil mine) and said it really tasted like barely sweet water...almost no taste at all.

 

 

     The next step is to move the sap to this large container so that gravity can force it into the boiler. The pictures look strange because it was so steamy in the sugar shack that at times we could barely see anything.

  

 

     This is the evaporator which does all the magic. It is heated with a wood fire and the room smells of sweet syrup and woodsmoke. I was freezing, but it was still fun to see.

 

 

     The sap moves through troughs in the evaporator as the steam rises and the syrup color darkens and becomes more flavorful. It is then moved to a machine where it is manually put into containers and sealed. Of course, we came home with fresh syrup. It is simply delicious. I want to pour it on everything. It isn't as thick as the "fake" maple syrup and the flavor is much lighter. I have had real maple syrup before, but never any that was so fresh it was barely cool. You can check out the Phillip's Facebook page here.

  

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What started my spring cleaning...and what stopped it!

     I mentioned last week that I was on a spring cleaning frenzy at my house. The project that started it all was the small antique spool cabinet that belonged to my in-laws. You have seen several pictures of the larger spool cabinet that I brought home from their house, but this small one had been waiting for me to find a place for it. I decided to line it with a neutral paper and use it as a jewelry box. Of course it didn't hold nearly as much as I thought it would. I opted to only put casual bracelets in one drawer and necklaces in the other. It forced me to clean out all of my jewelry...and eventually the dressers and closet.  

     I was doing great until last Wednesday. The picture below is what the trees in our yard looked like last Tuesday. They were still brown, there were a few buds just starting to show. We slept with our bedroom window open Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I woke up with an allergy migraine because...

...this is what happened to all of our Bradford Pear trees,

literally in just a few hours.

     Our yard is full of these trees, as is the rest of our town. I have never seen anything like this. The trees went from winter to spring in less than 24 hours. I guess when it is over 80 degrees in March, anything can happen. They are gorgeous but everyone I know is complaining of allergies. Mine just happen to take the form of headaches. Needless to say, the air-conditioner came on and the cleaning stopped! So did the blogging. I need to do some catching up this week!

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Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday.

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Midwest Confusion

As I write this Tuesday evening,

it is still 64 degrees after a high today of 68.

Wednesday we are going to get into the 70's.

These pictures are what we woke up to yesterday.

Enough said.

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A Little Old, A Little New

     With two library tables in my living/great room, I always have a space to put favorite seasonal decorations. This is the library table that sits behind our loveseat and you see it as you walk in our front door. This table belonged to my paternal grandmother.

 

     I didn't change much on the spool cabinet that we brought home from my in-law's house. A simple reindeer and a hint of aqua ribbon is all that was necessary.

     The coffee table got a bit of bling in the form of jewel tone "disco ball" ornaments. There was an unexpected surprise from these new Hobby Lobby ornaments. On the days when we have sunshine (which have been few), the entire room lights up with brilliant color for a short while. It is magical.

 

The Jolly Old Santa Claus book is a favorite treasure of mine.

     It was published in 1958 by Ideals Publishing and it was such a treat when I was a child and this book came out of hiding for the year. I was always fascinated by the two pages that showed the elves making the glass ornaments in the big fireplaces. The rich colors and details impressed me as a toddler and still take my breath away today. I recently found out that this book  has become valuable, but I'd never part with mine.

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Kim @ Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays

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Winter Wonderland

     My goal this year was to use silver, white, turquoise and jewel tones to create a winter look that wouldn't be screaming at me to take it down immediately after Christmas. My family has always teased me about wanting to take the tree down as the last present is opened. I really do put things away very quickly because I'm usually so sick of looking at them. I hope that maybe this year I've used a few things that can stay out through the winter. The vintage silver tray and compote were my mother's. I've used them on the library table at the top of the stairs. A mercury glass turquoise votive, silver and white seashell balls and a lidded jar full of jewel tone ornaments add a bit of color to this part of the house.

The opposite side of the table holds a snowy white church

and a collection of sparkling trees.

The book was a favorite of my children's.

 It brings back many memories.

I don't think you can ever go wrong when you add vintage postcards.

     My china cabinet is a bit unusal this year. The fox was a HomeGoods find. I bought it thinking it would look so cute curled up under the tree, until I realized that I couldn't have a tree on the floor with the new puppy. Wouldn't that fox tail be fun to chew on?? So, I put some fresh greenery on top of the cabinet and added the fox, a wintery birdhouse, some snowballs and an icy wreath. I know the fox is a little large for the spot, but I don't care...I like him.

     The cloche holds a reindeer of my grandmother's and an ornament from my in-law's just to add a little of the turquoise to this space.

     I did buy a new wreath for the wall above the stairway. It isn't showing up in the picture the way it really looks. Our walls are a fairly dark taupe and the wreath is heavily snow covered greenery with pinecones. I wanted something I could leave out all winter and this is perfect.

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Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday

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