Category Archives: homemade

Making Maple Syrup

February 22, 2016cooking, homemade, Making Maple Syrup, Tapping Maple Treesruthsoaper

The warm temperatures on Friday and Saturday were great for sap flow, so by the end of the day Saturday my husband had collected approximately 10 gallons or 40 quarts of sap. While collecting the sap from the sap buckets into plastic 5 gallon pails he filtered the sap through a honey filter that sits in the top of the 5 gallon bucket. This removed any solids that found their way into the sap. Overnight temperatures were cool enough to store the sap outside without it spoiling.

Yesterday morning he set out for the farm with the equipment he needed for cooking the sap. I didn’t get pictures of this part of the process yet, but hopefully I will as we collect and cook more sap. For equipment he took a 30 quart stainless steel pot for cooking the syrup and a long handle stainless steel spoon for stirring. He also took a second pot that the hot syrup would be transferred to in order to bring it home. He packed a lunch for himself and some treats for Scout and Trooper.

Since we don’t have a sugar shack or sap house for processing the sap indoors, it was a blessing that the weather was favorable for keeping an outdoor fire going. In preparation for this my husband had constructed a special fire pit, in a high and dry location, and split several wheel barrels full of fire wood. He began his syrup making mission by getting the fire going around 10 A.M. with a goal of having some finished product by days end. Keeping the fire burning and the pot boiling were his main objectives. He first thought that boiling small amounts at a time (filling the pot 1/4 full) would speed up the process, but he quickly learned that each time he would add more cold sap the temperature would drop so dramatically that it would take 10-12 minutes to return to a boil. Realizing the whole pot was hot, he decided to fill he pot closer to the top and maintain the boil while adding only smaller amounts of sap as it boiled down. He said it took about two hours before it came to a rolling boil.

In mid afternoon he made a quick trip back to the house to bring Scout and Trooper (who apparently just wanted to lay in the van) and to grab some hot dogs that he could cook over the fire for dinner. At this point he was anticipating that it could be as late as 8 P.M. before he was done cooking down the sap.

Reality was that around 6 P.M., a long eight hours after he began, and just in time for the chickens to be closed in their coop for the night, the sap had boiled down enough that the rest of the process could be done in the kitchen.

When he returned home we poured the cooked-down sap into a much smaller pan.

We heated it for a few minutes before deciding this would be a good time to filter it. We had decided to use a juice (or jelly) bag, that I had on hand for filtering the “sand”(a byproduct of boiling sap) out of the syrup. This seemed to work well. We then returned the sap to a boil and watched closely as it continued to boil down. My husband also told me to take some bacon out of the freezer to cook with tomorrows waffles for breakfast.

Once it seemed to be thickening I put in a candy thermometer. It needed to be brought up to 219 degrees fahrenheit or 7 degrees above the boiling point of water.

While I watched the thermometer, my husband used a spatula dipped in the syrup to check for sheeting – the syrup forms a sheet on the spatula instead of running off in droplets.

When the syrup was sheeting on the spatula and the temperature reached 219 degrees, which happened about the same time, we poured the syrup into sterilized ball jars.

Of course we had been tasting our product along the way, and I can honestly say that, while I don’t have a long history of tasting pure maple syrup, this is the best maple syrup that I have ever tasted.

This mornings breakfast menu included bacon and blueberry waffles, (with frozen blueberries from last springs harvest and our farm fresh egg), and of course our own maple syrup. Yumm!

http://andersonsmaplesyrup.com/index.php?page=nutritionalinformation This link has some really good nutritional information about real maple syrup.

While we don’t call it a bucket list, making maple syrup has certainly been on our to-do list for quite a long time and we are thrilled that we have done it. 🙂

Since the weather has cooled again the sap is not flowing, this weird weather pattern has only left us wondering when the next sap will flow and how much syrup we might end up with this year. But in the mean time we have realized why real maple syrup costs so much.

Tapping Maple Trees

February 20, 2016homemade, Making Maple Syrup, Tapping Maple Trees, Uncategorizedruthsoaper

We have been using a lot of maple syrup lately. It’s delicious on our French toast or waffles that we have been having for breakfast several times a week, but have you shopped for maple syrup lately? I’m talking about real maple syrup not, the corn syrup that is flavored up to taste like maple syrup. It’s expensive. So much so that we have recently opted for the fake stuff in effort to keep our grocery bill down. Real maple syrup has truly become a delicacy. A quick check at the Walmart website showed me prices ranging from 54 cents up to 94 cents per ounce. 54 cents might not seem like much but you don’t buy just one ounce. 12 ounces at 54 cents is $6.48, a quart which is 32 ounces at 54 cents would be $17.28, and a gallon which equals 128 ounces at 54 cents per ounce comes to $69.12. Keep in mind those are the low end prices; at 94 cents an ounce a gallon would cost over $120.

So considering this, and that fact that we have had the equipment needed for tapping the trees and collecting the sap, stored in our shed for the past few years, tapping some maple trees was a no-brainer.

We have been watching the weather forecast for about the last two weeks, since sap flow is dependent on the weather. Basically sap flows from trees that are still dormant when temperatures rise above freezing during the day but fall back below freezing at night. For a thorough explanation click here http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu/produc/sapflow.htm Since todays temperature was forecasted to be in the high 40’s or low 50’s and daytime temperatures for the next week to be mostly above freezing, it seemed like a good day to get the trees tapped.

After breakfast, we started out by tapping some sugar maples.

We used manual drill, and when I did the tapping of one of the trees I was surprised at how easy it was to drill the hole. A few things to note about drilling are that it should be done at a slight upward angle and drilled no more than 2 inches into the tree. I’m not sure if you can see in the picture that the drill bit had a piece of tape on it to mark the 2 inch mark. Recommended height is a height that is comfortable, so reaching up or bending down is not necessary. Also the ideal spot is one that has not been previously tapped and has no visible scars.

After drilling the hole the spile is tapped into the hole. Again I was somewhat surprised at how easy it was. It only took a few gentle taps with a light hammer and the spile was securely in place.

The next step was to hang the sap bucket. The bucket has a small hole in it, and the spile has a hook below the spout that is designed to hold the bucket. When the bucket is hung from the hook the spout then reaches over the top edge of the bucket. When the sap flows from the tree it runs down the spout and into the bucket.

The final step in the tapping process is to install the lid. Fortunately we had figured out how to assemble these a few days prior to doing the tapping, as it was a bit of a puzzle. The back edge of the lid is folded over but cut out in the center. There is a very thin metal rod that gets inserted through the first half of the fold. It then goes through two holes that were drilled into the top of the spile, then lastly through the second half of the fold on the lid. At this point the lid is secured to the spile, and it only rests on the lip of the bucket. The lid sits on an angle and has quite a bit of overhang, so it does serve to keep rain, potential snowfall, and anything else falling from above, out of the bucket. It does not sit tight on the bucket, so there is still a chance that things such as bugs or anything coming at it from the proper angle might get in. Those things can be filtered out later. This design allows for the bucket to be removed from the spile, for empting, without having the lid in the way. A very clever design.

http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu/FAQ.htm gives this information to determine how many taps a tree can support. “How many taps should you have on a maple tree?
A healthy tree 10-17 inches in diameter (31-53 inch circumference) should have no more than one tap. A tree 18-24 inches in diameter (57-75 inch circumference) should have no more than two taps. A tree larger than 25 inches in diameter (79-inch circumference) should have no more than three taps.”

We put half of our 18 buckets on sugar maples, but we also wanted to tap our silver maples at the farm. While silver maples indeed produce sap, it is said that they are not idea because the sugar content is lower than that of the sugar maple, thus requiring more sap to make the syrup. They also bud out earlier, therefore they have a shorter sap flow season.

The first thing we noticed when tapping the silver maples was that the sap began to flow immediately when the tree was drilled. Because it is clear it doesn’t show up in this picture, but there is sap coming out.

Unlike sugar maples that have a single large trunk growing straight up, the silver maple tends to have many trunks growing from near ground level. They grow outward on an angle. Because of this the buckets do not hang very straight. They will need to be emptied more often to prevent the sap from spilling over the side.

Upon seeing the sap run from the tree my husband tasted it. This was no surprise to me since he has a long history of tasting sap. As a kid he worked for a neighborhood maple syrup operation, and ever since I’ve know him, whenever he sees sap coming out of cut wood, even if it’s burning in the fire place, he dips his finger in the sap and tastes it. When he tasted the sap from the silver maple he responded with “it’s sweet, it has good sugar content.” I then tasted then sap and learned that my palate is not as refined as his. To me it tasted like water with just the slightest hint of sweetness. This makes sense to me because the sugar content of the sap from and sugar maple is reported only to be between 2 and 3% and the sugar content of the silver maple sap is between 1.5 and 1.75%.

As with most things we do at the farm the chickens had to investigate. (and who doesn’t love a good chicken picture)

Tapping the trees is only the beginning, and I might add the easy part, of making syrup. With that statement I must correct the comments made on my earlier post. https://donteatitsoap.com/2016/02/17/can-you-guess-what-we-are-doing/ Erin’s comment was, “Dad says gathering maple syrup” and I replied “Dad is correct”. What I should have said is that dad has the gist of what we are doing, but technically (and I’m sure Dad knows this) you don’t simply gather maple syrup from a tree. The sap buckets will be checked at least twice a day, and the sap that is collected in the buckets will only become syrup after a long boiling process. It will take 40-50 gallons of sap to boil down into one gallon of syrup. So as we continue to collect sap and make syrup I will post updates on our progress. I hope you will check back to see how it goes.

Don’t Try This

February 14, 2016homemade, pastryruthsoaper

I decided to make my husband a special dessert today for Valentines Day. Well to be honest, I would have made it for him any day, just because I love him and he loves desserts. I was inspired by the Foxfire Book http://www.foxfire.org/thefoxfirebooks.aspx that I was reading last night. When I read about fried pies, I got to thinking that they would probably be similar to Hostess Fruit Pies. My husband likes those little pies a lot, so I was pretty excited thinking that I could make him some.

Since the directions in the book were very vague, I did a internet search this morning and found this recipe http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/fried-fruit-pies/ I don’t really know why I bothered, because I already knew what I was going to do.

I took a bag of frozen mixed berries out of the freezer along with half a bag of frozen blueberries. I like to say these were all homegrown, but our berry crops did not do quite that well last year. I also took two store bought pie crusts out of the freezer. I put the berries in a pan, added about 2/3 cup of sugar and a couple tablespoons of cornstarch, and put them over low heat to cook.

I cooked the berries until they thickened up.

While the berries were cooking I took the pie crusts out of their pans and rolled them out.

I decide that I was going to fry these in lard, so I started heating the lard in to pan.

Once I got the pie crust rolled out so it was pretty flat and somewhat rectangle shaped, I cut it into wide strips and spooned some pie filling on it. I folded it over and pressed the edges to seal them.

Once the lard got to 350 degrees I dropping my pastry in with great anticipation. Instead of watching my pie turn a lovely shade of brown, this is what I saw.

The pastry just disintegrated, and I was left with small particles of pastry and pieces of fruit frying in hot grease. While I wanted to cry, I am not that easily defeated. I got out a baking stone and preheated the oven. I filled the rest of the pastries and put them on the stone.

I baked them for about a half hour at 350.

I then put on a light glaze made out of powdered sugar and water. The end product was more like toaster pastry. My husband, who also like toaster pastries, said these were really good. When I saw him eating a second one I was convinced.

While the pastries were baking I did a little detective to find out why frying these was such a failure. I knew it must be something with the ingredients, so I read the ingredients on the package for the pie crust. It was basically made of flour, water and lard. I realized that there was nothing to hold the combination together. No egg. Sure enough when I went back to the recipe that I had viewed this morning, on The Pioneer Woman website, it included egg.

Well one would hope that I would learn a lesson from this, and that I would start following actual recipes instead of just doing what I think will work. I wish I could say that is true. Maybe I will, sometimes, but I do so enjoy experimenting.

I think the real lessons for me is to have a back-up plan. It also shows me how much my husband loves me (not that I had any doubt about that), he not only tolerates my weird, quirky ways of doing things, he encourages them. He is my biggest fan.

Oh, and if case you are wondering, I’m sure the chickens will enjoy the fried pastry crumbles and fruit, so they will not go to waste.

Why I Make and Use Balms

January 29, 2016Balm's, homemade, ingredients, Uncategorizedruthsoaper

I guess I should define what I mean when I say balm, because the dictionary definitions that I read were very vague. When I say balm I mean a combination of oils, and/or butters, and/or wax used to sooth or moisturize the skin. It could also be called a salve. It differs from a cream or lotion in texture and in most cases ingredients.

The first thing I like about balms is that ingredients can be simple and all natural. I believe that often times less (ingredients) is better. Since oils and waxes are greatly shelf stable they do not require preservatives, unlike lotions where water or other liquid ingredients may introduce and/or allow for bacterial growth. While some oils may eventually get rancid, I have not experienced this. It seems to me that, since rancidity is caused by oxidation then mixing the oil with other substances like, beeswax or coconut oil, that contain antioxidants would counter act this.

I love that I can get a moisturizing effect without getting the burning feeling that I have gotten when applying various lotions and creams to my chapped hands. Applying the balm is soothing to the skin.

I love that I can use my balms without worrying that my nose will stuff up, or that I will begin sneezing from the fragrance.

While some people may prefer the creamy texture of a lotion, I prefer the feel of a balm on my skin. I believe the oily feel of the balm encourages me to rub or massage them into my skin, and massage is always a good thing. 🙂

Lastly, I love that my husband likes using them too.

If you have had problems finding a good cream or lotion for your face, hands, or any part of your body. You might want to check out my “Don’t Eat It!” Balms. https://donteatitsoap.com/store/ then send me an email at ruth20012001@yahoo.com and I will see how it would be best to get it to you.

Dehydrating Garlic

January 21, 2016Dehydrated Garlic, garlic, homemaderuthsoaper

As I mentioned in my last post, dehydrating garlic was one of the things on my to-do list. I find that having a to-do list helps me focus on the things I need to get done and crossing off things as they get done gives a sense of accomplishment. I have been very lax in making these lists for myself lately, so writing my last post has reminded me of what a great tool this is. It also motivated me to get busy, and that is what I did.

After writing that post I decided that Monday would be a good day to dehydrate garlic. I started with taking apart the garlic bulbs, and I selected a bowl that I thought would hold the right amount, and I filled it up with garlic cloves.

The bulbs that I used were mostly smaller bulbs that I had set aside for home use, because I thought they were to small to sell. They were a mixture of all five varieties that we grow. https://donteatitsoap.com/2015/08/09/the-garlic-is-in/

The next step, and certainly the most time consuming, was to peel each clove. I did this using my garlic peeler, and although it took a total of about three hours to peel all of those cloves it didn’t seem too bad once I got into a rhythm.

It actually reminded me, of many years ago, when I worked as a machine operator in a factory. I would challenge myself to run the machine as efficiently as possible. It was always a matter of having things set up properly, and usually doing one thing with one hand while doing something else with the other. Concentration was important.

After I had all of the garlic peeled I decided to weigh it before dehydrating it. It weighed 3 lbs. It will be interesting to see how much it weighs when it is finished.

This certainly would have been quicker if I had been using average size bulbs of garlic, but those are the ones we sell, and even quicker had I used large bulbs, but those are the ones we planted for next years crop.

The next step was to slice the garlic cloves. For this I decided to use my food processor with the slicing blade in it. It was obviously faster than slicing them all with a knife, and I believe they were more evenly sliced than if I had attempted to do them by hand.

Next I spread the garlic slices in a single layer on the trays of the dehydrator.

It actually worked out perfectly. 3lbs of garlic filled up all 9 trays of the dehydrator. When I looked online to find out what temperature would be best for drying the garlic I found answers that varied from 105 degrees all the way up to 125 degrees. I decided to go with 110 which was recommended by several blogs that I read. At 7:30 p.m. (19:30 hours) I set the timer for 20 hours, but I knew I would check it in the morning to see how it was coming along.

The smell of garlic quickly filled the house. My husband described it as a little overpowering, and when we went to bed he asked if I thought if we could die from garlic asphyxiation as we slept. I wasn’t worried, but I did keep my nose tucked under the covers most of the night.

By morning the smell was not nearly as strong but it was still very present. As we talked about it I wondered if the smell of garlic dehydrating works similar to aroma therapy. Could the smell have cleansed the home of bacteria or viruses that may have been present, and what potential health benefits could we have reaped from doing this?

The garlic was still pliable in the morning, and since I wanted it to be dry to the point of being brittle, I let the drying continue. I checked it several times throughout the day. At one point I realized that the upper trays seemed to be drying faster then the lower trays so I moved some of the trays around to get a more even drying. Finally when I checked the garlic at around 8:30 p.m. (20:30 hours) I determined that it was completely dry. 25 hours after starting it, I turned off the dehydrator and left it for the night.

The garlic dehydrating was done at this point and I could have packaged it in air tight containers and stored it as garlic chips. My husband said I could fool people by offering them a banana chip, but when I offered him a banana chip he said, “No thanks, I already tried one.” Instead of packaging it up like this, I decided to go one step farther and make garlic powder. I pulled out the food processor again but this time put in the sharp chopping blade. I filled the food processor about 1/3 full of garlic chips and turned it on. It was so loud that I turned it off and went to get some ear plugs to wear as I finished this.

Making Garlic Powder in the Food Processor

I did weigh the dried garlic before grinding it. The three pounds or 48 ounces that I started with was reduced to 22 ounces or just under half the weight that it started at. It took several minutes of grinding in the food processor to get it to a powdered texture, and while some of it was such a fine powder that it was seeping out of the food processor and looked like smoke, there were still a few small chunks in it as well.

I divided it into ball jars. The 8oz or 1 cup size jars held 5 ounces of garlic powder.

It is somewhat surprising, consider the strong smell that was emitted during the process, that the flavor was not lost during the process. The garlic powder seems to have the same strong and wonderful flavor as our fresh garlic. While my husband taste-tested it by eating some off a spoon, I decided to test it by making my dill-garlic dip. We agreed, the flavor is superb!

I have given my husband a heads-up that I intend to do another batch or two since I have more fresh garlic than we will use before it goes bad. Now my dilemma is whether to cross “dehydrate garlic” off of my to-do list, or leave it until I am all done.