Planting for the future!

My first Blog, so exciting!

Planting for the future, that's what we have been doing here on the farm recently.

With our new venture in Walnut and Big Leaf Maple syrup production (even if it is on a small scale) we decided to plant some new walnut trees. These three new trees are white walnut(butternut). It will take about 20 years for these trees to grow large enough to tap(making a hole in the tree to collect the sap) for their sap. Walnut trees and Big leaf Maples should have a trunk diameter close to 12 inches before tapping. It may take a couple of decades before we can tap these trees but their sweet reward should make the wait worth while!

Here are some interesting things I have learned from our first year of Walnut Syrup production. We have 7 large English Walnut trees on our property that we tapped in 2017.

* It takes apx. 40 litres of Walnut sap to evaporate down to 1 litre of Syrup

* A good tap can produce up to 10 litres of sap a day in perfect conditions.

* It Takes 14 hours in a 32litre pot on a propane burner to evaporate 40 litres of sap down to 1 litre of syrup.

* a 30lb propane tank can run for 36 hours.

* The colour of Walnut Syrup is a very dark amber.

* Walnut Syrup has a strong rich taste.

* Walnut Syrup has a very thin watery consistency.

* Taste of Walnut Syrup varies from batch to batch and seems to get stronger when evaporated in larger batches and when it comes from sap collected later in the season(March)

* There is natural Pectin in the Walnut Sap that needs to be filtered out of the final syrup, It is thick and plugs up filters quickly.

*Tapping Walnut trees and producing syrup is a fun but time consuming activity that shares its sweet reward with you in the end!

*2017 Walnut syrup will be available to purchase at our Spring Farm Event May 5th, 6th and 7th.

I can't wait to share this experience with visitors to the farm in 2018!

Thank you to our good friend Jim Saulter for planting this seed (Maple Tapping) in my mind many years ago! Every good and sweet thing is worth the wait!