Harvesting Maple Sap

Winters in Maine can be hard. Some years, it can feel as though they will never end. Collecting sap from maple trees and turning it into maple syrup is a bridge for me that helps pass the end of winter into the beginning of spring and the warmer, sunnier days ahead. Sap runs through the trees when the nighttime temps are below freezing, but the daytime temps start to get a bit melty and warm. The end of winter often seems nearer than it really is...a bright sunny day or two can lead you to believe that you've left those arctic days behind. But there's nearly always one or more last lingering surprise snow squall in store, and it can be hard on your psyche when you are looking forward to packing away winter for another year. I find sap season to be grounding....despite those cold, bitter, windy and snowy days, there is a steady march of daytime temps above freezing as the nights gradually work their way warmer also. When the overnight temps are no longer below 32 F, the sap stops. One can't help but forgive lingering cold temps at night when it means more of that delicious maple syrup to enjoy throughout the rest of the year. It's the sweetest consolation prize.

Once sap is collected, it must be boiled down. It takes approximately 40 parts of sap to produce 1 part of maple syrup. I use sap taps with a hook, and then hang a bucket with a lid from each one. I only have two maple trees, though. Many people now use tubing to direct to a bag or bucket on the ground, or for those with many trees, they might set up a network of tubing from each tree that converges and combines in one central location at the lowest elevation.

So, for the next few weeks, I will be watching the sap fill my buckets, then collecting them each evening and boiling them down. It will keep me distracted until the weather is mild and it's time to put those seedlings in the garden.

Quick March Sock Update

We are coming up on the middle of March, and I have an update on my Solo Sock Club. I am working on the Laxo Socks, which are a toe-up pattern, and I am working them two at a time. While this does give me the opportunity to use up every last bit of color in this gradient-dyed sock yarn, I must confess that two-at-a-time socks seem to take FOREVER for me. On the bright side, when you are done with one, you are done with both, but....it feels like a slog to me.

Here is where I stand with March's project:

Generally, I consider when the heel is turned on a sock that I am about halfway through. These ones may not be quite so far along, as I usually do have a significant amount of yarn leftover when my socks are finished, but in this case, I will continue knitting in pattern until I run out of yarn. I also tried them on at one point and didn't think there was enough length for my toes to be comfortable, so I ripped it back to the gusset increases and added about another 3/4 inch in length. Overall, I feel just about on target with these. I am ~about~ halfway done with the socks and also ~about~ halfway through the month of March. I'll continue to try to get about 30 mintues a day in on sock knitting before moving on to other projects. I am loving the way the gradient is working up on these. Next up is starting the mock cable portion of the pattern, and that's when the pattern really starts to shine. Stay tuned!

Starting Seed Starting

Today is Daylight Savings Day, which means we lost an hour of sleep here - but it will remain light outside for an hour later than before, so that is appealing. It will also stay dark an hour later, but I tend to be asleep, so I don't notice it on that end.

Today is also the day I started my first batches of seeds for the garden. We are about 11 weeks out from the last frost date in my growing zone, so I started my onion seeds and pepper seeds today.

I also finally got around to dealing with the last of the peppers from the 2023 harvest. We generally have good luck with peppers here. I had perhaps 6 or 8 jalapeno plants, 2 habanero plants, 2 cayenne pepper plants, 2 hot banana pepper plants and 2 sweet pepper plants. We had a great jalapeno harvest; I canned 12 pint jars of jalapenos. I also had enough to can 2 jars of hot banana peppers and 1 can of habaneros. I had planned the habaneros to be used for salsa, but unfortunately my tomato plants all had some sort of blight, so I didn't harvest any in 2023. I think it was due to the insanely soggy summer we had here. It rained way more than usual, and I don't think I needed to water the garden more than twice all season. It was great for the cucumbers, so not so much for tomatoes. You'd think then that we would have an excess of hababeros, but no - the pint jar I put them into broke in the water bath, and they were a complete loss. I did have some left that I tossed into the freezer whole. Those went into the freeze dryer today, along with the cayenne peppers that I dehydrated last fall.

I didn't receive the freeze dryer until late November 2023, so it was past the time for harvest preparation for the most part. As the cayenne peppers were already dehydrated and the habaneros were already frozen, these were easy and suitable to toss into the freeze dryer. Then I can either crush them and add to a recipe or rehydrate them for another use. The cayenne peppers likely will not rehydrate well, as they were dehydrated prior to going in the freeze dryer, so those are likely to be crushed into flakes or powder.

These are all now processed and safely tucked away into shelf-stable food storage. I am loving the freeze dryer, and I think this will be a game changer in the fall for not letting my hard work in the garden go to waste. I can be canning WHILE I am freeze drying. It's also a shorter active time commitment to run the freeze dryer as compared to the canner. Once the freeze dryer is going, I can step away and let it do its thing...which may take overnight. I tend to only run the canner (pressure canner or water bath canner) on the weekends, but I will often run the freeze dryer during the week and just swap it over outside of working hours.

So while the 2023 pepper processing has come to a close, the 2024 season has kicked off on the same day. I am always excited to set the first seeds of the year into potting soil, as I look forward to a new growing season. I may not be the best gardener, but I keep trying, I get a little better each year, and I always learn something new. Here's to the 2024 growing season!

Fuchsia Fairy

When you're known as being the auntie who MAKES THINGS, well, sometimes you get asked to make things. My niece is starting a fairy garden, and her mom reached out to ask if I would make this fairy for Piper for Christmas.

The answer was no. There was *no way* I could order the yarn, get the wires for shaping and the little eyes early enough to have time to complete the project before Christmas. But....Piper's birthday was in February. I did have time to make one before then, and the best part was that nobody would be expecting it for her birthday. So I stealthily crocheted the fairy, and I bet everyone was REAL surprised, because....well, it was late. I'm sure they thought I forgot her birthday. They live about 1600 miles away, so I had to mail the package, and it arrived a few days after the big day. It was a big hit, though.

This is by far the tiniest thing I've ever crocheted. I was worried it might not turn out well, but I think it did. So does my niece, which is the part that really matters.

March Solo Sock Club Yarn and Pattern

I am really excited about March's draw for the Solo Sock Club. I was SO excited that I cast on and knit for quite a while before it occurred to me to take a picture of the yarn to post on the blog. Facepalm.

This is how the yarn looked before I lost control and cast on. The bottom set is closest to these colors.

The yarn is Bashful Gradient Dyed Cupcakes, which was previously sold under Bashful Bags and Fibers. I followed a link to their etsy page, but it doesn't appear that they still have any active listings. If you really want to get your hands on some, you might get lucky and find a stashed set on ravelry with which someone would be willing to part.

For this yarn, I really want to use up every little bit of that scrumptious color. I've opted for a toe-up pattern, Laxo Socks.

Using a toe-up pattern means that I can keep knitting until all the yarn is used up, ensuring I get all of that lovely color worked into my project. I can't wait to see how these ones turn out. Since I already have a head-start on March, I will likely have these finished well before the month ends.

February Solo Sock Club

It turns out February kept me quite busy at my day job. Since only about 2 people read this blog, day job won out over blog posts. I did, however, finish my February socks a while back. The yarn I pulled for February was a self-striping yarn in an American flag pattern.

The yarn is from Artistic Yarn by Abi. Truth be told, this one has been in stash for a loooooooong time. I don't think she sells this pattern any longer; she may have changed her business name since I bought this yarn. That's one of the features of the Solo Sock Club, though - I get to use up amazing yarns that have been languishing in storage so long that I forgot I even owned them. Because this is a self-striping yarn, I opted for a vanilla pattern to let the colors shine on this pair. I am very pleased that this yarn was pulled early in the year...recall that I didn't label the bags and I'm choosing them at random. I'm glad I will have the flag socks ready to go for Memorial Day and the 4th of July. I mean, I won't hesitate to wear them any time of year, but it's nice to have themed socks available when a holiday rolls around. Stay tuned to see the March sock club yarn and pattern.

February Solo Sock Club Yarn and Pattern

It's March! I know what you're thinking, but I didn't skip February in the sock club. I simply didn't post about it (I know). The January socks turned out great. Here's the yarn for the February socks:

Due to the self-striping nature of the sock yarn, these will be knit up in a vanilla sock pattern so that it doesn't look too busy with all the color changes. Stay tuned to see the finished socks!