There will be SYRUP!

As usual, it takes very little to make me jazzed.  I finally made it out to grade some of my black walnut trees.  I have chosen ten to start with.  They are on the fringe of the woods, so they will get good sun exposure and they are at least ten inches in diameter.  Each of these trees has had an orange length of baling twine tied around their trunks so I will be able to find them next spring.  This is step one for making black walnut syrup next spring.

Step two was ordering a book from the library via the interlibrary exchange.  The book is called "Backyard Sugarin" by Rink Mann.  A slender volume that touts it can teach me everything I need to know to collect sap, build an evaporator, both temporary and permanent, then boil down to a first class syrup.  I hope Mr Mann truly does have the power to convert me into a syrup mavin.

I have found an internet source for tree taps and other sugaring supplies.  As soon as I get some allowance I will be putting in an order to Ok Hardware in Wisconsin.  I've also found several sources for  steam table pans that will be my first evaporator pans.  Might move on to something else later, but if Mr. Mann doesn't have any objections then I will start with those.

I have not built a sugaring shack.  I will just have to figure out some sort of temporary shelter to start with.  In the meantime, I need to start getting firewood cut and stacked.  I look forward to this chore.  Being out in the woods is restorative, like when I spend time with the horses.  My spirit could use more time in the woods.

When next spring rolls around, my little farm will officially have two crops..... hay and black walnut syrup.  Granted they are teeny, tiny crops, but it is a start and I feel like I am finally on my way.  My goal has been for a very long time now to have at least five products from the farm and each should net around four thousand dollars.  That would be the minimum that I need to support myself.  It's a goal and it seems like it takes me forever to reach my goals, but I feel so good!  I feel like I can honestly say that there is going to be SYRUP!!!!

Louie

EUREKA!!

Okay, it's not a total and complete Eureka!... it's a kind of, sort of Eureka! As the rain has continued to pour down on us, I have spent time trying to find additional crops for the little farm. I am trying to find a more perennial scheme. The plan is to plant once, have a minimal investment in maintenance and be able to harvest every year. That's the skeleton version of permaculture.

So, over the weekend I tried to make final decisions about what to do with hazelnuts. While doing that research over the internet, I found a site where the owner was making a call out for suppliers. He was needing various kinds of nuts, organically grown. He was also needing black walnut syrup. Of course, I'd heard of maple syrup, but never black walnut. So, more internet research.

This could work! I have black walnut trees. Just in a quick glance I counted seven that would be big enough to tap. It seems that sugaring can be detail oriented, but it certainly isn't rocket science. Equipment can be home made. I can do this! This could fill the hole as another cash crop for the little farm. The best part... I don't have to plant anything. The trees are there. They're ready! I have until spring to get an evaporator built and to find pans. Other then that, it is a matter of spouts and covered buckets, or milk jugs in a pinch.

There is a part of me that wants to get so excited about the possibilities that I find... another part, is the real fear that for the want of a couple of hundred dollars, I just won't be able to pull off a very workable plan.

Oh well, keep on, keepin' on. My life here is good. Better then it has been in many, many years. I think I've found the happiness factor. The last hurdle is the money situation. I'll keep looking and hoping and eventually, there will be that Eureka! moment and it won't be kind of , sort of.

Louie