A friend of mine likes to say that harvesting maple syrup is very satisfying, as its one thing you can do with a tree that doesn’t harm it and yet yields a wonderful product. Hugh Richardson, his wife Marcia and his brother Roger are neighbours of ours in Deerfield, Nova Scotia, and Hugh thought he’d like to try his hand at making Maple syrup. We have maples on our property, and he has some on his, so that set the scene for the whole enterprise. Hugh is a wonderful handyman, and he spent time recovering scrap and used lumber and created a Sugar Shack, then he recovered an old oil drum and turned that into a stove for boiling the sap under the evaporator pan (the one thing he did have to buy), and then he read up on the Internet how to make the syrup. They invited me over to watch, and the photos here are the result – and I made a short video of 40 or so images that show the various stages of the production. At the end of the day, Norma and I went home with a small bottle of the liquid gold – Hugh’s latest batch had started with 29 US Gallons of sap, and he got 7 cups of Maple Syrup out of that boil. I made my sister’s (who lives in Vermont, so she knows a thing or two about maple syrup as well) waffle recipe of blueberry waffles (with our own blueberries) and topped them with Hugh and Marcia and Roger’s wonderful syrup. Some good, as they say up here, or, as we used to say in New England – Wicked good!!!

See the video here .