Syrup and Ramps

[Tallpines]

Still a few spots of SNOW in our woods.

All the supplies for collecting maple sap have been cleaned up and put away.
Due to physical limitations (old age), it was our lowest volume of sap collected … ever.
Thankfully two of our daughters, along with their children, were quite faithful in offering assistance with the project.
We have not gotten the finished product back from the Mennonite neighbor who does the cooking for us, but I suspect it will be only 8-10 quarts.

The Ramps have exploded throughout the woods!
Just a short walk into the woods will release the onion-garlic smell!
They only last a few weeks before retreating back into the soil until next spring.

I should really get out to check out the progress of the wildflowers.
Last week there were a few Blood Root blossoms.
All those flowers come and go too quickly!

A person has to take the time to notice them,  and, enjoy them NOW, before the season passes us by.

Such is LIFE !


.

[Woodpecker]

I always stop & smell the roses. 🌹 and any other flowers or flowering bushes on my walks. It adds a lot of enjoyment to my walks.

Right now I have our Lilacs in three of the rooms in our home…we can smell them from the sun porch to the dining room, delicious. 💐 🌸 🌺

I can’t wait until summer when our two Jasmine plants will bloom, after they’ve been outside for a couple of months…those have the most potent, beautiful smell ever!

[mogal]

I missed this post, Tallpines. Sorry about that.

We tapped the 7-8 trees in our yard just for the experience then I cooked it down over a wood fired rocket stove. My evaporator pan was a steam table pan that held about 3 gal of syrup at a time. No worries since I only got 40 quarts of sap which translated to about a quart of the best tasting syrup I could imagine. The nice part was that I did it all just off our back porch at a time when the geese were going back north for summer so it was a great joy to see the huge flocks. I also enjoyed the bird song as they were also coming back north and looking for mates and nesting sites.

I get really tickled at DH because he'll read something on line then show the article to me as if I might have never heard of the topic. A recent one was ramps. I don't know if my part of MO has them in profusion as you do even in the Ozark regions. However, I snagged several young plants at a native plant sale at the University's Bradford Farm some years back and have managed to increase my patch over time. So, after DH went on and on about these early wild plants that could be part of one's diet, I went down the list telling him what they were and why I knew he wouldn't eat many of them. For example, he won't touch what he calls "asparagrass" so why bother with fiddleheads? I got such a kick out of showing him my ramps patch but I doubt he'd eat those either.

[bluemingidiot]

I live a rampless life. But we are blessed with a lot of blooms. The latest are almond verbena, bougainvillea, and cowpen daisies. We have volunteer cowpen daisies and zinnias coming up all over.