Maple Sugaring open house

We had our first ever maple sugaring/syrup open house on March 7, 2009. The photo on the left with Renay sucking on the tube connected to a tap in the maple tree headlined our invite. You can see 2 blue tubes attached to taps in the maple tree – this was the first stop on our open house tour.

When we mailed out our invitations, we hoped for good weather; a few days before the scheduled open house, the forecast was for 80% chances for rain – bummer! Miraculously, the rain held off.

The photo is of our shitake logs which are close to sugar shack (where we boil the sap) and so on our tour folks see them and want to know all about them. The spots on the logs are where we drilled holes, packed in spawn (shitake spores mixed with sawdust) and then sealed with our own beeswax.

The photo on the left shows the maple sap cooking in the pan in the foreground – see the steam off to the left? The smiling faces are students from Truman University in Kirksville (about 35 miles from us) -who came for the open house. I am the 3rd person from left – trying to blend in with the younger crowd.

Naturally, we had tasting experiences: maple sap, syrup, and 2 experiments of maple candy – shown in the photo on the right (we were worried that if a lot of folks came, there might not be enough candy – hence the sign requesting one per person). The tasting was a great hit – I neglected to include the sap in the photo – it looks like water and tastes like water with a faint hint of maple/sweetness in it. It’s hard to imagine the sap being the only ingredient in the syrup & candy.

The final photo is of one of our guests, Melinda – an enthusiastic sampler of the maple candy. It’s hard to see – but there is a trail of candy (as thin as a spider’s web, or leg?) from the candy in her hand to her mouth. Ah – the look on her face says it all: divine! We had a great time at the maple open house.