Welcome to Amateur Photography Hour in my kitchen. I have just back-lit a jar of homemade maple syrup, using a mini LED flashlight, held in place with duct tape. And I think it is fitting, because this particular maple syrup is freshly made by Dave. It was still warm, when he handed it to me on Saturday.
Dave and LuAnn are our friends and saviors down in Indiana. We don’t know what we’d do without them. I think they’d be flattered to be described as MacGyver meets Paula Deen meets Duck Dynasty. Gosh, I know I would.
Want to see how Dave makes his maple syrup? Let’s go. And let’s assume you know about the tree buckets and stuff. Raise your hand, if you don’t.
Dave decants the fresh sap “water” into the big white barrel. And then he uses that swinging spigot to fill the two nearest pots, which are the warming pots.
The sap boils and cooks down in the warming pots, and then is filtered (not shown) and dipped into the two pans farthest from the barrel. Those pans bubble and thicken into syrup, also regularly filtered (again, not shown).
Look at this golden deliciousness. And it still has some cooking-down to go.
Dave’s everyday/everynight fire pit is rigged with wind breaks and extra grates. He pretty much babysits the process 24/4. He and LuAnn sleep in the camper, just yards from the pit, so that in the wee hours they can stumble to stoke the fire and change out the simmering syrup.
And I have to say that seeing the smoke and sweat that went into my maple syrup just makes it all the sweeter.
ginnygram 