Sugaring

Just finished my secondary foodservice at Kurn Hattin, a boarding school in Westminster, VT. Nicest group of people to work with. So much fun! We served japchae today for the kids to try. I've been working 6-2:30, getting fed two meals a day isn't a bad trade-off :). 

The school has maple sugar trees and a sugarhouse to boil down the sap. I got to go tap an old tree they plan on taking down. Most trees get about two holes drilled in, but bc this tree was getting cut down we drilled a half dozen or so. You drill up at an angle so the sap can run out (it started dripping out pretty quick). You have to wait to tap trees until the days are warm and the nights are cold and before the trees start budding.

You put a spile on the hole, which, in the picture is the green tube and a plastic spile thing that gets nailed into the tree. The spile has to be inserted into the tube. Back in the day you either had to chew or torch the plastic to shove it in, but now there's a two piece cramping tool which makes it pretty simple. Then you nail one end into the tree and attach a bucket! it takes about 50 gallons of sap to make a gallon of maple syrup...so, got a while to go. haha. lots of family producers have lines that run from tree to tree and collect or go straight to the sugarhouse, but the sugarhouse at Kurn Hattin is across the street.

It's sugaring weekend in VT and NH so maybe I'll get to learn/do more!