Syrup from Sap

We decided in the end to go to the Arboretum yesterday. As it was the pancake breakfast, it meant we did not have to pay the entrance fee. We should really become Friends, we go there that often....but then again we can get free passes from the library.

The breakfast was very popular - as many as you could eat (about 3 as it turns out, as they were the thick, fluffy variety), chickens sausages and lashings of syrup. I was mentioning to a friend of mine (American) last week that it was a bit odd for us to see people pouring maple syrup over their bacon. "Urgh!" she agreed, "That's disgusting! It's not bad on sausages though....".

It was a nice bright, tingly sort of day, so it was actually getting quite warm by the time we decided to see the maple tapping. It's very intriguing - they put metal taps into the maples (about an inch in), and then link them all to one enormous central hose which then leads to the syrup house. So overhead, in this wood are all these reticulation hoses. Prime syrup-gathering times are when it's below freezing at night, and above during the day (so most of the year, then). This means the sap actually freezes in the pipes, as it is about 97% water, 3% sugar. It's then boiled down; 40 gallons (I think) gives about 1 gallon (or cup, I can't remember - I was getting a bit high on the fumes by this point) of syrup. Apparently up in Alaska (and, obviously, the Ukraine), they make syrup out of birch.

After that we had a nice amble about the grounds, and then went to the potato exhibition at the children's centre there. T potted the smallest potato I have ever see (pea-sized), made potato-print pictures, coloured in a potato, and made some potato snacks. There was a bit of a theme.

We have just been experiencing the famous "Minnesotan fake spring" as tomorrow it is forecast 6 inches of snow. My poor little daffodils are only just nervously peeking their little heads out, and now they'll get frost-bitten. I saw on the local Daffodil Club web-site that they are actually considered a summer flower here.