Here is a great view to wake up to in the morning, looks like we live on the edge of a vast lake.
More on syrup production; here are a few missing steps from the process. This is the sap Squeaky emptied into the transfer bucket (shown in the last post). I call it Missouri coconut juice (at least it looks like it to me).
Here is an example of a Puerto Rican maple. All of the sap is contained in these giant nuts which is convenient because you don't need taps or buckets.
Missouri coconut juice must go into these food grade barrels for protection from little kids. (The longer it stays in here the darker it will be when processed, partly because bacteria will eat a portion of the sugar, so you can minimize storage time to produce a "Grade A" variety unless you want a stronger maple flavored "Grade B").
From there it goes into food service/buffet pans (buffet pans are used to maximize surface area in order to facilitate evaporation) and boiled down into syrup. TJ has recently calculated a 20 to 1 ratio which is a good indication that the trees are sugar maples (as opposed to red or silver maples, etc.).
Unlike the fake syrup found in most stores (made primarily with corn syrup by Big Agra because it's
subsidized with your money a wonderful substitute for other sweeteners), real maple syrup contains sucrose (primarily), malic and amino acids, minerals (calcium, potassium, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, and iron and zinc) and trace amounts of vitamins (B5, B6, D, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, and folic acid). Big Agra's fake syrup has different ingredients. Some are
sodium benzoate or
phosphoric acid and trace amounts of mercury from within the
high fructose corn syrup (all toxins). It also has its own version of essential vitamins like 2-methylimidazole or 4-methylimidazole from the "
caramel color" (promotes tumors in lab animals).
And the best way to end the day is with a meal from produce or animals all raised right here: squash, pastured chicken and raw milk for dinner.
That maple sap does look like coconut water, but I bet it doesn't taste like it. We had coconut trees in our front yard when we lived in Hawaii, those nuts were hard to crack:)
ReplyDeleteThat syrup looks really good, almost like honey. Nice set up for cooking it down. Hopefully we can find more maples on our land this year for tapping for next year.
What kind of squash was served for dinner? I didn't recognize it in the picture.
It is butternut squash and the great thing about it is we didn't plant it. The chickens did by scratching through the scraps we fed them. We still have a couple left, they have kept all winter!
Deletethat is awesome. That is the best kind of food to have...no work on your part:) I will have to look into planting some of those in our garden. I want some that over winter well.
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