Pancakes

Joey tapped our trees around February 23 and the sap has been flowing heavily.  After filling a few gallon buckets within the first few days, Joey decided to scrub out our rain barrel to store the sap.  He got 55 gallons of sap to fill the rain barrel.

He then built a make-shift evaporator in our backyard using cement blocks and the metal grill from our charcoal grill.  He filled a granite wear tub with sap and built a hot fire under it, and watched it boil.  All. Day. Long.  By the late evening, the sap had boiled down enough that he could fill 3 soup pots and boil it on the stove top.  This method is not recommended.  It causes the humidity in your house to rise considerably, and is especially not advised if you have wallpaper.  Since we don't have any wallpaper in our house, all the windows formed condensation instead, and our dry skin got a break from dry winter air.

Over two days of boiling we got about 7 pints of maple syrup.  

Trees tapped along the street.

In this new year Joey has learned a new skill: making pancakes.  He has also learned how to make pancakes while I am sleeping and bring them to me in bed.  He makes an awful mess in the kitchen, but it makes the house smell good, and the pancakes are tasty.  For now, I can't sample our maple syrup since it is not pasteurized so I've been covering my pancakes with peanut butter and raspberry jam.  Baby doesn't mind though.  After eating pancakes for dinner the other night, he was kicking and moving as if he appreciates pancakes as much as his papa.

When Joey was little (like two or three), his family went on vacation.  And every day when they ate at a restaurant little Joey ordered pancakes.  After about a week of pancakes, his mom decided he had had enough and ordered him something else instead.  When that meal arrived at the table, Joey looked around quizzically and asked, "Pancakes coming?"  I don't know if he got pancakes that day or his mom made him eat what she ordered, but it's good to know that something as simple as a plateful of pancakes can make my husband happy.  He makes me happy.