Sweet!

While growing up, my dad, brother and I would tap the dozen or so sugar maples around the house to boil down and make maple syrup from. Those many March's always bring pleasant memories of my childhood and teenage years. Eventually I took over the operation of tapping and collection, but mom & dad would always help with the boiling and the canning. We'd end up with several quarts per year - enough to last us for a years worth of breakfasts and french toast dinners. We'd always have extra too.

Well, an added bonus to the house Pat and I bought last year was several sugar maple trees. So of course I had to carve out those sugar making memories from over a decade ago and tap the trees. The first tree I tapped in February was what I kind-of thought was a sugar maple - it turned out it was some other maple - probably red. The test syrup was not good at all and I haven't done anything with the remaining sap. But, I knew I had at least four other trees on or near the property that were sugar maples (you can tell from the branches and bark) that I would tap. I decided only to tap the larger of the two trees - they were about 14 inches in diameter each - plenty large enough for at least one tap.

So...Pat and I drilled one hole in each sometime in the first week of March, hung the collection buckets (courtesy of our friend Kristina's parents) and started boiling it down shortly thereafter. In order to get optimal sap flow, you need cold - sub 30 degree temperatures, and days in the 40's. We had that for a good stretch this March and ended up with about 25 gallons of sap. To date, we've boiled down about 18 of those gallons on an outdoor fire pit I built out of cinder blocks and steel crossbars. We also had plenty of pine we found on the sides of local roads (and Brookline) and used that as fuel.

After three nights of three hour boiling sessions, we ended up with about a gallon of sugary water. From there, the operation heading inside and the filtering and refining happened.

We ended up with about two and a half pints of really nice maple syrup - enough to last Pat ad I most of the year. Next year I'll probably tap the other two trees and expand the operation a bit to get a bit more. All and all, it was worth the effort - fun to do it again and taste it again.

Asparagus bed under construction

I've been spending my last two weekends and a couple nights after work digging rocks out of my lawn to continue what used to be an asparagus bed. The previous owners or whoever planted it originally didn't do such a good job with soil prep and most of the plants died. I could tell that he/she planted many because when I was digging there I came across several dead roots. So...as usual I ended up going overboard and dug down probably 15 inches on average until I was sick of digging up rocks and ended up expanding what was there (mostly lawn, clay and rocks) to a pretty decent sized bed. I'd say it ended up measuring about 5 by 12 feet, or enough to plant 20 roots or so. Here it was when I got started last week:

The rock wall behind it (foreground) was completely redone by Pat and me, which was good because I was able to expand my bed outward another foot or so. Hopefully when we get out of these unseasonably cold temperatures early this week, I'll be able to build a rock wall in the front and finish prepping the soil. Asparagus loves basic soil, so I limed the hell out of it and ended up wheel barreling in four loads full of sand from another bed we built last year. That bed was put in near where our shed is (background of above picture) and the soil there is very sandy from when they built it. So, I moved some of that vegetable hating sandy soil and relocated it for my sand loving asparagus. I'll replace the soil I 'stole' with better loam later in the spring.

I ended up buying 25 - one year Jersey Giant roots from Burpee for $29. I figure with shipping that is only about $1.50 per plant. I'm sure a few will die, so I'll be happy with twenty plants. I could have gone with the cheaper Mary Washington variety, but those are more prone to fusarium wilt and root rot and only yield about half the Jersey variety does. When the roots arrive in a few weeks, I should have the bed done and the soil prepped. In the meantime, I'll have the enjoy waiting for the two surviving roots to sends up shoots.

Spring has sprung

This was the first weekend of spring and the temperatures suggested so. There are signs all over the place that winter is over and summer is on its way. We had a mess load of robins in our front yard this weekend and there appeared to be a greening of the lawn with the warmer temperatures of late. I uncovered my strawberries I planted last spring and they showed plenty of green. My daffodils are coming up too...I'm guessing they'll be blooming early as the buds are already three or four inches above the ground.

The raised rock garden bed they are in was built last fall - it was the last larger project of the season. I bought the two dozen bulbs at Wal-mart and planted them in October. They seemed to have all survived the sub -10 weather we had on a couple nights this past winter. No doubt the multiple inches of snow that were on them throughout the winter provided enough insulation to protect them.

It is amazing to me how well snow insulates. Last spring I planted a couple rows of carrots and I was able to dig them up all winter long - the ground was barely frozen under the snow. I'm planning on keeping the carrots underground again this next winter to harvest throughout the season - I just need to better mark where they were. One cold afternoon in January I was digging where I thought they were only to find out I missed them by a foot - no fun when it was only 10 degrees out. I was very surprised how well they kept - they cooked up great too.

Next posting - Asparagus

The beginning of the 2009 gardening season

I decided it would be a good idea to show the progression of the 2009 gardens by starting from the beginning when the snow has finally melted - barring any ridiculous late season snowstorm (which has happened more than once before).

Last weekend Pat and I built greenhouses to give our various seedlings a bit of an extra boost. It was a fun project and cost us only about $40 in supplies for the two of them. It took us the afternoon of the 14th to make them, but they came out great. Pat made more of a walk-in type with shelving inside and I build more of a chest style that will allow me to lift up the top for access to the plants. Both will work well. Unfortunately the plastic on mine has already ripped from the winds on Wednesday, so I may need to do some taping to prevent it from happening again. Here is a pic of the one I built.

A few weeks ago our friends Kyle & Kristina and I bought seeds together from Burpee. Last Wednesday after they arrived we divided them up so we'd each have some to play with. I had some seeds left over from last year and I picked up a couple from Home Depot as well. On Sunday I drafted up a schedule of when I need to start the seeds - inside and out. I'll be doing my first planting this weekend. Onions and Impatients are first up!