"The Farm"

I've had an amazing couple of weeks lately. Last weekend we went up to the farm to boil sap for my wedding favors. As always, it was great to see my Mom & Dan. Xander was there for the weekend, which was a bonus, and we created my wedding favors. We created the favors. I can't explain the sense of pride I have in the fact that my guests will be bringing home something that came from my folks farm.

Aaron and Dan (and Xander) collected the sap (about 70 gallons) and boiled it down. My mother and I washed and prepared all the jars, and Aaron and I filled, sealed, and washed them.

It was really important to me that my guests leave the wedding with an attitude that it was a "great night" but also a small gift from my family. That is exactly what we created last weekend.

We also did many other fun things aside from boiling sap. We hung out a lot, we made a boiled dinner on the sap stove, made a delicious pea soup, and we made mine and my nephews favorite cake- pineapple upside down cake (yum!). I get a great sense of peace from the farm (even with three Chihuahuas raising hell!)

Pictures from the weekend.

Aaron and Xander collecting sap:

Aaron boiling the sap in "The Barn"

Me cleaning and drying 100 glass jars:

What's left of 70 gallons of sap? Well, it boils down to about 2 1/2 gallons of pure maple syrup.

Which then, painstakingly, has to be put in 100+ tiny 50 ml. jars.

Ta-Da!


Other random pictures from the weekend
Our boiled dinner:

The Chihuahuas:


The three amigos: Cidney, Manny and Bing


Xander made a cake for us!

Hanging out....