84-Laneaster Fanning, Saturday, April 13, 1996
On Being a
Farm Wife
(and other
hazards) .
Joyce Bupp
Just call this Maple Syrup
Part 11.
Perhapk you remember our re
cent maple syrup-making experi
ment.
While removing invasive
young trees from along the edges
of some fields. The Fanner dis
covered sap pouring out from the
stumps of several small maples he
had downed. Intrigued by the
abundant flow of sap, he carted
several plastic containers to the
site and gathered a few gallons of
the clear, slighdy-greenish-tinted
liquid.
When they ended up on the
kitchen counter, it was obvious
that the kitchen was going to be
come a temporary sugaring house.
So we boiled for sevend hours, re
frigerated the condensed stuff
overnight, started a second kettle
in the morning and boiled some
mote.
Eventually the couple of gal
lons was reduced to a pint of still
thin syrup that had a least trans
formed to a warm, brownish color.
In the house for lunch. The Fanner
eyed the remnants of his gathering
and suggested we halt the process
before reducing the yield to a mere
few tablespoons.
So into the refrigerator went a
two-cup container of sweet.
• Agricultural • Commercial • Residential
• Retaining Walls • Bunker Silos
• Manure Storage, Etc.
LEtOUK
We Won
Herd Foi.
Customer
Satlafactk
brownish, very runny, sort of Ma
ple Syrup Lite.
Since then, we’ve been fascin
ated to learn how many other ama
teur syrup concocters there are out
there. One friend related how she
and her husband gathered SO gal
lons of sap in the mountains and
cooked it down over a fire kept
roaring under a large, metal cook
er once used by the local fire com
pany for frying doughnuts.
A reader shares how he taps
maple trees in his yard and also
cooks the sap down on an outside
fire. Boiling down maple syrup in
the house, he relates, “is a good
way to take off wallpaper.”
We didn’t remove any wallpa
per most of our walls ate pan
eled to cover up the old, crumb
ling, horsehair plaster but did
enjoy extra high humidity from
the steam generated during the
process. But keep that thought in
mind should you need to rertaove
wallpaper from your house at
some point in time.
And to neighbor John, who left
a message on the phone machine
asking if he could bring over a
pancake to sample die syrup, my
apologies. You’re too late.
See. several days after our sug
aring event, I had to be away for a
meeting. While The Farmer had
16 Ft. High Circular Manure Storage
Featuring Side-Mount Pump
been sampling the syrup as a
spread on bread, he decided may
be he could thicken it up a bit
So, he emptied the syrup into
my favorite one-quart, stainless
steel saucepan a wedding gift,
so you know how long I’ve used it
and returned it to the stove. He
did this at lunchtime, then remem
bered be needed to run out “a min
ute” to do something at the bam.
Right- The minute stretched in
to many. And he returned to a
house filled with smoke, no maple
syrup, and a blackened pan. In
fact, the pan had gotten so hot that
the inner layer of aluminum had
melted out into a thick puddle on
the stove. (He confessed- and
gave me permission to tell this tale
before I discovered my favorite
saucepan missing.)
No. I did not *‘fly off the
handle.” What I did was offer a
prayer of thanks that all that was
destroyed was a pan—and not the
house. And made him promise to
NEVER leave the house with the
stove turned on. Even for a min
ute.
I am now the owner of an
original aluminum-sculpted pa
perweight. If you use your
imagination, it looks like a reclin
ing elephant with its trunk raised
up in the air.
The paperweight will sit on a
windowsill next to another
“souvenir” a part removed a
Garbers Grind Wheat
Her fears of what she would do
with so much flour were ground
less. Now she orders four tons
three times a year, which she sells
by word of mouth.
Because Brenda, her husband
Glenn and children, Michele, IS,
and Richard, 12, live in a suburb,
they rent storage facilities else
where. Brenda said that she started
teaching bread making from flesh
ly milled flour one by one to
others. The idea caught on, and
Brenda received more and more
requests for the demonstration.
Now she offers demonstrations to
groups, either in her own home or
in the home located within a one
hour drive of Lancaster City. She
charges $lO a person, but serves
lunch made of wheat chili, freshly
baked bread, and even wheat
roasted coffee. Each participant
also goes home with a loaf of
bread.
Although Brenda will sell fresh
ly ground flour to those who attend
her classes, she limits the amount
“I am not in the business of grind
couple of year* ago firom the pick
up truck’s gas tank. Wiring prob
lems had started a fire that got so
hot that the plastic on this piece—-
from inside the gas tank is par
tially melted. But it never ex
ploded.
I look at it now and then. And
count our blessings.
(Continued from Page B 3)
ing flour for people,” she said.
She prefers to teach others how
to do it and have them order the
equipment and grind the wheat
themselves. She sells SO pounds of
whole kernel wheat for $l6.
Bosch, she said, is a Germany
company that is well known for
making quality auto parts and
tools. Brenda checked out other
brands but believes the Bosch
brand is outstanding for its whisper
quiet motor, speed, and ease to
operate and clean.
Although the initial outlay for
the equipment may seem high,
Brenda said, “It’s an investment,
but you get your ihoney back.”
She estimates that it costs her
only 40 cents a loaf to make the
xead. In addition the kitchen sys
tem serves as an electric mixer,
blender, and food processor.
All types of hard grains can be
ground in the mill.
For more information on bread
making classes or the whole kernel
wheat, contact Brenda at (717)
569-0158,