Our beloved food correspondent Maple Trout Lilli is back! She nourished the crew on a recent boiling day with this fine soup. I couldn’t taste the maple but I could taste the difference. She writes: CUSTOM THAI CURRY SOUP WITH A hint OF MAPLE A light but warming soup for when it’s still light at… Read More
A Gusher Run on Friday the 13th
—Of all the things to worry about today, that’s low on the list, said Chief of Operations. She had complained that the wood chunks for stoking the fire were all hardwood one day and all softwood the next. The ideal stoke is a blend of the two, the softwood (spruce in this case, harvested… Read More
Night or Day?
Weather: In the past week we got two freeze/thaw cycles followed by a cold Saturday. Today, Sunday, A Mighty Thaw (The Mighty Thaw?) got going. At 7pm it’s in the mid-forties and most likely won’t freeze for several days. This forecast is not ideal, it’s intimidating. How’s It Running? Those freezing nights last week triggered… Read More
Right Away
Tapping. Then right away, scrubbing tanks, setting up the pans, shoveling, prepping the RO and the vacuum pump. I could go on. But right away, a run. Then right away, boiling. Then a few cold days to say, ahhh, we’ve survived the first run. Now a forecast for a repeat of the first run, only… Read More
It’s 2020: The Same Only Different
Same late February light, Same rattling of beech sapling leaves, Same maple trees, Same snowshoe route up the hill, Same brook to cross, Same tapping ritual, And the backpack with all the tools weighs the same. Late February light differs hour to hour, A new troop of beech leaves rattles this… Read More
Things Furling and Unfurling
The unfurling began in earnest three days ago when the sun came out and sweatshirts came off, and wool hats, too. The unfurling, that is, of the baby maple leaves, all brown and red and wrinkly to begin with. As spring green creeps up the hillside, first bedecking the Old Bush and currently coloring in… Read More
Throwback Thursday Recipe
While the crew fills the woodshed and the trout lilies thrust into bloom on the forest floor, our food correspondent Maple Trout Lilli offers her Pièce de Resistance du Printemps 2019. She writes: Spring is here, the grass is greening up and our wonderful local farmers up the road have been harvesting their spinach that… Read More
Scraping Across Centuries
On this fortieth day of the season of Lent, the most quiet day of the year in the Christian calendar, the day between Good Friday and Easter, I will reprint an entry from the 2010 Sugar Season Blog. The Far Corner of the Sugarhouse: As you enter the sugarhouse – just you – to the… Read More
April 18th: Wrapping Up
A Chronicle of the Last Day of Boiling: I’m sitting on a stool by the back pan feeling cozy on a chilly day. Ross is tending the finish trough, Sam is whistling to a silly song playing on the CD, I fell into the sap today….while scraping wood scraps toward the firebox with a shovel,… Read More
April 13th: All Thaw News
“It’s time to put on your big boy pants and get zesty,” said an Iditarod musher to a flailing musher he overcame on a particularly grueling stretch of trail. ‘Tis. WEATHER: The Turn. The thaw began on Thursday. Thursday night it dropped to 32 at the sugarhouse. Friday it climbed to 45. Friday night stayed… Read More
The Nebraska Knoll Blog 