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Maple Sugaring at Chiot’s Run

March 13th, 2009

Yesterday Mr Chiots and I tapped 12 of our maple trees here at Chiot’s Run. I have always wanted to do it but I thought you could only tap sugar maples, but Saturday I found out this was not the case.
maple-spile-dripping-sap
I ran to Lehman’s Hardware in Kidron, OH and bought some spiles to tap our trees. Then we spent a half hour tapping our maple trees yesterday.
maple-sugaring
One tree started running sap as soon as we tapped it, it was very exciting. We hung the jar under it and it produced almost a pint of sap in 2 hours before it got cold.
maple-spile-in-tree
It’s a bit late in the year for us to be tapping, the season started a few weeks ago, but we still have a week or two of sap weather coming. We won’t get much syrup since it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. If I get enough for one pancake breakfast I’ll be happy.
maple-sugaring-in-glass-jars
This is such a great way to learn new things. I would never just sit down and learn about maple trees, but we had a great time looking in our tree book and finding out how to identify maple trees in the winter by their bark. It’s a good thing I already knew which trees on our property were maples, since identifying trees in the winter without being able to see the buds is a bit of a challenge. We learned a lot and we’re looking forward to the sweet reward!

Anyone else tapping their maple trees? Do you buy local maple syrup?

New Cherry Tree

June 24th, 2008

A while ago we decided to add a few fruit trees to our gardens. After much deliberation, we finally ordered a Montmorency Cherry Tree from the National Arbor Day Foundation. It’s scarcely 18 inches tall, but it has already grown 6 inches since we received it. It arrived a month ago while I was busy putting in and planting raised beds, so I planted it a large pot. Yesterday I finally got around to putting in it’s final place in the front flowerbed. I had to move a large catmint plant (was supposed to be a Walker’s Low, but it turned out to be a regular catmint). It looks tiny between the other 2 catmints but soon enough it will be tall and provide some shade for some lovely lady’s mantle underneath it. I can’t wait for the cherry pies!

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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