We boiled syrup late into Monday night. I split wood by the nearly full moon as it reflected brightly off of new snowfall, pin point stars and bright planets shining down. And the crisp, crisp air burning into your lungs and fingertips if you stepped more than a few paces from the roaring evaporator. James and Nathan abandoned the
project near midnight (I had given in to sleep long before that), the hose bringing sap from the holding tank to the evaporator was continuously freezing in the single digit air. We started the
evaporator up the following afternoon, Nathan and James again holding
vigil until after midnight. But completing the boil and finally
filtering and finishing the syrup in our smaller pan. We started with
sap halfway up the sides of the huge tank, we’re guessing about 250
gallons, and ended up with 24 quarts of delectable Adirondack gold.
The sap again started flowing yesterday mid-day. We’ll collect today
and start filling the tank…

We’re headed into the mountains tomorrow for a congressional hearing
on the new Farm Bill. There are only four of these hearings being held
in the entire country, it’s a mystery why Saranac Lake made the docket
(not exactly the bread basket, or fruit bushel for that matter). The
farm bill was created during the Great Depression and now divvies up
about 90 billion of our tax dollars every year, regulating not just
how food in grocery stores is produced, but legislates how small farms
operate, what children are eating in the lunchroom, land conservation
practices across the nation, which farms should be subsidized, food
security, agricultural worker’s rights, fiber and lumber production
and how much of our land will be devoted to growing fuel vs. food.
It’s a sweeping bill and needs input from more than the
representatives of industrial agriculture. The meeting is being held
at North Country Community College in the Sparks Athletic Complex
between 9 and noon. For incongruity, we’re pushing north to the St.
Lawrence valley after the meeting to pick-up our horse harnesses from
the amish shop where they are being cleaned and repaired for the
coming season. There are plenty of cars heading to the meeting for any
interested in carpooling.

In the veggie share: Maple Syrup! Parsnips, leeks, carrots, beets,
cabbage, potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, rutabaga, radish, black,
white and red dry beans, sauerkraut, and a little taste of growing
things with jars of alfalfa sprouts.

In the meat share: Pork, beef and chicken.

See you tonight between 4 and 6,
Sara Kurak
Full and By Farm

Related articles

• Farm Bill update: Fewer secrets, more hard work (grist.org)
• Farm Bill reauthorization helps everyone (thehill.com)
• Farm bill needs a major overhaul (sfgate.com)
• The Farm Bill, Beyond the Farm (nytimes.com)
• Pass the Maple Syrup… (goingtoseedinzone5.wordpress.com)