Collecting

I finally collected some more sap today, 30 gallons, at about 2 in the afternoon. I’ll be boiling tomorrow for sure. I did get a lot of office work completed which goes by the wayside while I’m boiling. I think I returned everyone’s phone calls and/or emails.

The weather turned warm and balmy today and was really quite beautiful. One of these photos shows the ants who also like the warm weather and the sweet sap. Look carefully, the brown dark spot near the spile (spout) are hundreds of ants!

Have a sweet evening!

Keefe Kids & Others

The Keefe kids came today, enjoyed the sugaring program and a hayride! Many, many others came to visit today as well. Mike from Cheshire with his wife and 2 kids, the 2 ladies with the large handsome dogs who I asked to keep clear of the bunnies so they would not have heart attacks (the bunnies I mean!), the guy on the bike, new to town who we told there was no mountain biking on our trails contrary to what he’d read on the internet!

In between the visitors I boiled, and boiled and boiled. It was great! I used up the sap Colin collected for me and Vin and Eddie had helped me clear whatever clog led to the arch backing up and sending out smoke signals so I was in good shape for the afternoon.

Here are some more photos from the day.

My dear friend Kim and her boys Mason and Kenton paid me a quick visit while they were visiting in state and the boys showed me their monkey bar skills after helping me draw off some syrup.

The girls scouts visited and Ranger Vin and I taught them about sugaring and one little sister showed me her collection of animals, the little fuzzy kinds I don’t have at the park.

Also to note was a visit from Friends of Brooksvale Member Betsy Driebeek and her two boys Kyle and Julian who I enjoy learning from as well as teaching. We discussed whether the season was going to run short or not and I am going to do some more investigating after I sign off here.

One more thing. I know you ALL want syrup, our syrup and we will sell it on the open house day of March 3. We will sell it first-come, first-served. If you are a Friends of Brooksvale member, you can reserve up to 2 of the 1/2 pint bottles ahead of time and we’ll hold them for you. Go to Brooksvale.org for a membership form. We limit two per customer (Member or not) so everyone gets a taste. We WILL sell syrup made by area sugarmakers during the open house. We need to spread the sweetness!

Not sure if I’ll be boiling tomorrow or not depending on how much sap is in the buckets and the rain. I’m guessing I’ll definitely be there Thursday.

Have a sweet evening!
Ranger Kirsten

 

What a Sugarmaker Does

The park was a busy place today and the day started off with a bang, or should I say smoke. Here are the first two photos we took of what a sugarmaker does.

These two photos show me under the smoke stack out the back of the sugar shack trying to get the base off and check to see if there was a blockage. I started the fire in the arch as I usually do and the smoke billowed out. It was crazy! I opened the doors, opened the windows and the damper too. More smoke. Eddie grabbed some tools and we worked on opening the stack to see if there was perhaps a bird’s nest started in there. The screening at the top of both stacks has burnt off and wasn’t replaced before the start of this season. With me being away two days from the park I wondered if the spring birds were trying to nest in there. A little debris came out, but not much. When it’s cold (the stove, not outside) we’ll try and check the horizontal pipe. Whatever was in there or blocking the path was gone by the time I stoked the fire some more and the fire burned well for the rest of the day.

Visiting Day

Dear George, McCallister, McGregor, Emma, Hayden, Connor, Jean, John, Alan, Lisa, Wes, Kayley, Austin, Sarah, Kate, Kay, Rob, Harry, Sean, Jesse, Lisa, Ron and the dozens of other folks who came to visit me at the sugar shack today, Thank-you! It was a fun day and I hope you had as much fun talking and learning about making Maple Syrup as I did.

Thank-you to Kay and Rob who brought their favorite sugarmaker a fresh hot cup of black coffee and a treat. Craig and Mike took care of the animals, emptied the trash and did some other park work while I boiled and boiled and boiled. It was a wonderful treat to get to show some of you the almost finished syrup pouring out! It smelled so good.

I am absolutely humbled that all of you want our Brooksvale syrup but know from past years that the demand often outweighs the supply. During the Open House on March 3 I will sell whatever syrup we have made and also have some from 2 other area sugar makers we would like you to support. The Brooksvale syrup will be bottled in 1/2 pint containers and sold for $7 each with a limit of 2 per customer. After I sell out I encourage you to buy from our friends who will price theirs based on other producers in the state. We all belong to the Maple Syrup Producers Association of CT and adhere to the same standards for making the sweet syrup just right for you to enjoy!

Sunday is my day off so I’ll check in with the park staff and if the sap is flowing I’ll boil again on Monday otherwise I’ll be there Tuesday-Saturday of next week each day boiling at least from 10-3. Stop by and introduce yourselves if you have time. (Head’s up: We have a big group coming in on Tuesday so I may be just a tad busy for a bit!)

Have a sweet weekend!
Ranger Kirsten

 

Who Likes Sugar?

Well, we do. And so do ants, moths, fleas and other bugs. Sugar is a food or energy course for many little critters. These critters usually find their way into my sap at the end of the season. I am only 2 weeks into the season at the park and the critters have come.

You can see them here crawling all over the spile. Don’t worry, I strain the sap when I pour it into the collection tank and most of the ants are kept out of the boiling sap bath later on.

When the kids come to the sugar shack and I show them the evaporation process I assure them too that the bugs are not part of my diet, I am not in a show called “Women vs. Wild” or “Fear Factor” where the main gross out of the day is what bug you can eat live or fried! I’ll take my protein in the form of peanut butter thank-you.

Today I collected 25 gallons of sap (minus a bit spilled on my jeans, jacket and sugar shack floor) and I’m sure I’ll feel the sore muscles tomorrow. When’s the last time you lifted 5, 5 gallon containers over your shoulders which weigh 40 pounds each?

The weather is staying great for the sap to run and I’m hoping we can eek out another week of good sap, if the bugs don’t really start to bug me.

The Sugar Shack will be open 10-3 tomorrow. If you’re in the area, stop on by. We don’t have any for sale yet but are working on it!

And here are a few more photos to close the day.

Have a sweet evening!

Boilin’

I’ll be at the sugar shack today and tomorrow until about 3pm I think. We have school kids coming in until about 11am. The sap should be running well and the steam rising from the sugar shack. If you want to stop by and you don’t see me around the shack, I may just be taking a quick nature break (!) so hang on a sec and I’ll be back.

A watched pot…

never boils and an un-watched pot, can burn. I scorched the evaporator pan today. Not a good thing. I got a ride at lunchtime to go pick up my car from an oil change and Eddie called and said, “Sean smells burnt sugar.” Ugh, that was not good. I had kept the fire low and thought I put enough water in the pan when I left. The sap was frozen which is why I put water in after teaching the classes. Anywho…I told him to pour water in the pan. By the time I got back Ranger Vin had the pan off and Sean scrubbing the scorched part. Fortunately it was only one part. I had brought vinegar (magic!) and we soaked it more and the rest came off. Thank-you Sean.

Scorching happens from two things mainly. The sap level getting too low and nitre (sugar sand/minerals) building up on the bottom of the pan. With this year’s warming trend I noticed last week there was a bit more nitre than last year at the same time. I also noticed that the pan is very warped. We normally get 3 years out of a pan and this is our 4th year with this pan. Each year I learn more and more.

Since last time I wrote, we had students from Ms. Manzi, Mr. Ortoleva and Ms. Dease’s classed at Ridge Hill School. My four children went to Ridge Hill and it was a treat to see Ms. Manzi again and get to know the others better. Next came the students from Shepherd Glen in Mrs. Powell and Ms. Helenski’s class. They were one of the few classes that weren’t snowed out last year! Today we shared the Sugaring Story with Mrs. Irwin and Mr. O’brien’s classes from Spring Glen.

Note: In describing a tree’s inner core being called the heartwood and likening it to the spine on a human, giving it strength, I often ask, “What animal would you be if you did not have a spine?” Often the kids answer Snake, Jelly-Fish or worm. So, I do agree with them sometimes without getting into the details of the series of vertebrae in a snake that make it so flexible and the way a human spine differs. Since this is a constant source of debate, a parent corrected me today and herpetology is not my strength, from now on I’ll stick to worms. And call Jim Sirch at Yale’s Peabody and learn more about snakes.

The sugar shack will be open tomorrow, Friday and Saturday this week from about 9-3 or 4. Maybe I’ll see you and we can discuss snakes or syrup?

Have a sweet evening!

Raise the Roof at Brooksvale!

I know, I know, you missed my blog update last night. I’m wiped out. It was stoking the fire, teaching great kids from Helen Street School, stoking the fire, boiling sap, then a church meeting and fortunately a helper named Sean continued the sap boiling for me, then home to feed my family after a grocery store trip then a meeting about the fundraising for the NEW Animal Barn at Brooksvale!

I’ll only be in the sugar shack a couple hours today to use up the sap we got this week. The temps are going to be dropping and it’ll freeze back into the ground probably for quite a few days over the weekend. From Monday of next week through March 3 (our Open House day) I will be at the sugar shack 6 days a week weather/sap permitting. I’ll keep you posted.

So, onto the fundraising for the New Animal Barn. We will NEED your help (and yes, your donations) to make this happen. If you can help us with a fundraising event or want to contact potential sponsors, DO it! We will be sending out more information this coming week.

Have a Sweet Day!

Visitors and Manly Men

Did you lose me? Jesse’s been keeping me company since late last season and the earring I found today after many visitors came to the park. Is it from one of the teachers or chaperones from Dunbar Hill School? The kids were great, the sun was shining and I hope they remembered what we learned about the Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker! Thank  you to SCSU intern Mike for once again scooping the ice cream for the kids.

Mike has been a great help giving me an extra hand with things and today he raked and cleared the path to the Pop-Pop Sugar Maple tree (our oldest tree we tap) and took a stump out that we trip over occasionally as the leaves cover it and other hazards. Mike also collected the sap with me for the first time and saw how it’s just a bit easier when 2 do it. Lifting 25 buckets of sap at approximately 20-24lbs. each when full can cause one’s arms to tire quickly. Nice to share the load.

It was great to visit with Kathleen and her two leashed Scotties were very patient waiting to take their walk. I also met Douglass today and hope he visits me again soon at the sugar shack with his Mom, Dad and little sister or brother (?). I met Paul and his pup Bean (as in Pinto, black and white) and am very glad they walked a new trail today and enjoyed the park as much as we all do. My in-laws Calvin and Carolyn from Bethany also paid me a visit and that surely was sweet!

Coop and Eddie continued work on the new walkway to the wildlife garden and I added those photos too. I am to tell their wives, Deb and Luanne that they were wielding manly 3 pound hammers to drive 18″ spikes into 4x4x12′s to hold them into the ground with manly strength and power. A very manly activity for an afternoon at the park.

What a wonderful day today. Collected 55 gallons from our 25 buckets and though it’s not quite syrup today, I got close. Tomorrow, more kids, more sap (?) and more boiling. Leaving for an hour so in midafternoon though, hoping Ranger Vin can boil until I get back.

Have a Sweet Evening!

Never Stop Learning

Today was one of those days where I realized that you never stop learning. Or at least I don’t.

I learned that a barn can be painted during the first week of February when Mother Nature has deemed the day to be more like Spring than winter. See photo of Eddie above.

I learned that daffodils will poke their slim heads through the ground way before they are supposed to when the ground has never frozen and solar rays continue to warm the earth. See photo of daffodil and friends above.

I also learned today that the brother and sister team of Liz & George Hindinger from Hindinger’s Farm are two of the NICEST PEOPLE on earth. Truly! I also learned how to prune an apple tree. Actually 7 apple trees and it was Ranger Vin & I who learned.

Last fall we asked Team Hindinger to gives us some hints on taking care of our baby orchard within our Children’s garden when Cedar Apple Rust attacked our 3 year old trees and the apples on them were, well, yuk.

As George explained now’s the time to prune the trees and they’re actually ahead of the game this year on their farm due to all this nice weather. After last year’s bear of a winter, I think we’re all ahead of the game!

I learned to take off the sucker branches, encourage the leader to grow, maybe do a bit of aesthetic trimming here but not there and that the fruits weigh down the branches so having them too low is not good nor is letting the trees get too high. We were encouraged to see both flower and leaf buds on the tree ready for real spring to come.

As George got down on his knees and scooped mulch away from the base of one tree, I learned that mice and voles like to burrow down around there and nibble on the bark. If the tree gets girdled it can die. Girdled as in: anything that encircles, confines, or limits…or in this case circles around and chews! The dynamic brother sister duo actually donated tree guards/mouse guards (no, not mouth guards) that wrap around the base of the tree to keep the vermin out! They are awesome, the tree guards and the Hindinger’s too!

Today I learned once again that good neighbors are willing to help us make Brooksvale Park a better place. I’d like to return the favor by telling all of you that their farm on Dunbar Hill Rd. is a wonderful place filled with good things to eat and they will open for the season in May. Visit their website (link embedded above) and maybe even consider signing up for the CSA program which provides you with a box of fresh produce each week during the season. For one price, payable in two installments, you are guaranteed the freshest and the best from a local farm who cares about their community.