Every spring, summer and fall Aline laments the amount of shade we have in our backyard and how poorly it affects the garden harvest. Well this year we’ve decided to embrace the trees and suck some of their life force out of them …. we are making maple syrup. Aline’s folks had some unused buckets and spigots to pass along so we’ve tapped 10 trees in our first attempt.
| Production costs and savings | |
| Item | Cost |
| 10 buckets, lids and spigots | Free hand-me-downs from Aline’s folks |
| Salton double burner | $22 sale price at Canadian Tire |
| Coffee filters | Already on hand |
| Pots and containers | Already on hand |
| Two 12 quart stockpots | $38.13 |
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| Total costs to date: | $60.13 |
| Total savings to date: | 3 litres worth of syrup = $30 |
| Noteworthy | |||||
| Date | Notes | ||||
| Monday March 1, 2010 | No production on first warm day. Just one teaspoon of syrup. | ||||
| Tuesday March 2, 2010 | First taste test of about 300 ml syrup! | ||||
| Saturday March 6, 2010 | Sunny. Family brunch with to celebrate homemade syrup! | ||||
| Monday March 8, 2010 | Oh oh, Wasn’t cold enough last night. Sap production suffered! | ||||
| Thursday March 11, 2010 | Picking up new 12 quart stockpots today . . . | ||||
Making monsters is Dr. Nutt’s specialty. Her best creations are the Yummy Mummy, the Boogie-Woogie Man, and her masterpiece, Dracula-la-la! who loves to sing Opera music. It’s music to Dr. Nutt’s ears, but the villagers don’t like the idea of singing vampires roaming around their town. When they storm her laboratory they are in for a pleasant surprise.
