It snowed last night and everything this morning was highlighted in white with bright sun. Even in this it’s-supposed-to-be-spring season, it was the kind of snowfall that takes your breath away. And the sun warmed the land all day long.
In the afternoon, I canned a gallon of maple syrup. I broke my thermometer (stupid), so am now measuring that moment sap turns to syrup using a hydrometer. My hydrometer, specifically made for maple sugaring, has hot (211°F) and cold (60°F) targets indicated on a Brix scale. Brix is a measure of sugar concentration. But here’s my dilemma: In an earlier post, I indicated that sap becomes syrup at approximately 220°F, which sounds a lot hotter than 211°F. Now, without a thermometer, how do I know when the temperature of the boiling, soon-to-be syrup from the pan is 211°F to use the “hot” line on the hydrometer? With just a touch of sibilance, if the sugar content in the syrup ends up too high, its state of sugar supersaturation is evident by a “sugar cloud” in the syrup. My batch of syrup of a couple of days ago is so afflicted (a bit unsightly, but of no consequence to the taste of the syrup).
Being the total nerd I am, the procedure I tested to finish today’s batch was: (1) sample the boiling syrup using a Pyrex measuring cup, (2) with the hydrometer inserted in the metal hydrometer cup (which, by the way, transfers heat very quickly and gets very hot), fill with hot syrup, (3) spin the hydrometer to ensure complete wetting, (4) start stopwatch, (5) after 1 minute, measure the Brix, and (6) the syrup is done when the “hot” line is reached, which corresponds to a Brix of 59.
Success: By evening, today’s batch shows no sign of sugar supersaturation. The syrup also is quite a bit darker, which is a typical outcome with sap collected later in the sugaring season.
I worked in the yard and garden raking and composting; hope and accomplishment,although it was hard to gauge what I had actually done. The sun was still bright by happy hour, and we sat out on the front terrace between a snow bank and flowering crocuses. It wasn’t exactly warm, but perfectly almost spring.
It’s like a mantra this time of year: spring is coming…spring is coming…spring is coming.