Update on the birch syrup

A picture of a foxy visitor we had the other week.

The last of the sap in the big pot.

 Filtering  the sap through a coffee filter and mesh filter to get any gunk out. I did this each time I brought new sap in to put in the big pot.

This is what remains.

Still steam coming off the open one.

Well this was an expirence and come to an end this early only because my work schedule was getting in the way and collecting sap to boil down on the woodstove was becoming impossible. This last little bit was done on the propane stove over the last weekend that I had off.
My main boiling down pot was a 12 qt stainless steel pot and I bet I filled her up twenty times or better to get this quantity of syrup. I think I may have gotten away with boiling it down even more.
As for the taste...well....when the pot was boiling and the steam was in the air it definitely had the aroma of syrup. It's got a woodsy, spicy flavour. It's not maple and it's definitely not aunt Jemima!
One dilemma with wild or  new foods is trying to compare it to something else when it is its own.
The two jars are bottled tight so I will save them for I think bread making in the fall and winter. I may try flavouring some herbal teas over the summer with the other.
The sap is regrettably still flowing. Oh how I wish I had the time.
I have taken down my buckets and taken out the taps(stiles or whatever one calls them). Said my thanks to the trees and gave them an offering for their generosity.
Next year.....I am working towards having more time to do what I want to do. I have plans on making different taps for the trees. I used a combination of ones made from birch branches as well as metal ones.
I plan on styling ones from birch branches so that they also can hold onto the bucket.
Another thing that I learned was when tapping the trees when standing on four feet of snow>put the taps in lower! I am only five feet tall and was surprized as the snow started going away.

Some April Activities

It's been a bit since I posted anything. I have had a few things on the go.  Below is the making of a ginger tincture. This involves slicing/chopping or even grating up the ginger, putting it in a glass container and covering it with alcohol. I usually just use the vodka but this time I decided to try brandy as well. Make sure that all the plant material is covered with the alcohol and put a lid on it and leave for about six week. I shake the jars when I remember. After the six weeks, with either cheesecloth or a coffee filter separate the solids and the liquids and keep the liquid and compost the solids(though I may boil them up for a cup of tea before I compost them). The tincture will keep for years.

 The birch sap is really starting to run now. This is what I collected the other day. When I bring it in I filter it through a sieve with a coffee filter in it to filter out any debris that may have fallen in the sap. I hope to have time in the next couple days to carve me up a couple more taps for the trees. I have four trees tapped now and would like to add several more. I have found that the sap is running in some of the birch but others are completely dry. Hopefully I will get enough syrup  for at least a sample . Next year I plan to expand on what I am doing with this. Methinks that I will need a pair of snowshoes to accomplish more though.

This little fellow(?) was with a flock of snow buntings that invaded our place the other day. Despite the cuteness that the cubbiness gives him, it proved fatal. I should have gotten a picture of the regular size of this bird.  The bird was so large for what is was supposed to be that its wings didn't meet at the back and he could no longer fly. I don't know if he had gotten into something somewhere or if was just a natural thing.




In the future I hope to cover the building of the new humanure toilet as our bathroom gets finished. The chickens that I plan on getting as soon as I can get a coop built. As well as the changes once we get some of our property leveled(it has to be done). I hope to get started on the greenhouse and the garden.

I hope to post more

Between work and lack of internet access at the moment my posting in here looks a little spotty. Birch sap is not running yet/ hope to tap again on Saturday. Hope to work at the birch bark and drying it to make flour soon.(just have to home long enough to do this).I am only on the internet on days when I am stuck in town waiting for a ride home(my three hour shift today really does not justify a twenty dollar cab ride!!). Anyway, hopefully birch then we will see about Dr. Dandelion and making some coffee and salad and some tincture. Fiddleheads and nettle I see in the future as well!

This is the way we wash our clothes....wash our clothes...wash our clothes

 This is my wash day kit. An empty beef bucket which I use to both haul water and to wash and rinse clothes in. Laundry soap. A plunger; this works wonderfully to force the dirt out of the clothes. Plus a washboard that is now seldom used since discovering the plunger.
I got the idea for the plunger out of Lehman's non electric catalog. There was a plunger in there, I think it was made out of a galvanized metal, that was for use to wash clothes.

 I used rainwater for washing clothes until the end of

 October last year. Then I switched to getting water from the little brook by my place. It's three hundred steps from the front door to the water. So not too far. During the winter<the part where we had snow> I melted snow. Now I am back to hauling the water and soon hope to be back to using rainwater.
This is what the path to the water looked like as I walked down on Saturday morning.

 This is the little hill I go up and down to get to the water. I have a worn track there and as long as I don't step off of it I am okay. There is still about three feet of snow left.

 I heat the water in the big pot on the stove.

 Suds added and ready to go!

 The plunger really does the trick of forcing the dirt from the clothes!

 When the snow started in January it came in really fast. So my clothes line is way over there and basically not practically accessible. Still has the dogs' blanket on it.

 So this is part of my make shift line. My husband was putting together a wood shed out of pallets when the snow struck up here. I just strung my line up where I could.

 The small stuff dries on the line inside.

 This is one of my buddies. Last summer there was a mom and a dad and three babies. The mom and dad gray jay didn't take much convincing to eat the raisins from my hand. As their little ones got older they started coming to me as well.
Now there are six birds in total. The "family" plus one extra. I have had them show up when I have been on a walk so far up to about three kilometers away!

This squirrel has provided me with hours of entertainment! And many many smiles!

I had a suet cake in the side of the feeder and I watched Mr.Squirrel spend about half an hour struggling to pull it out. He finally succeeded. Watching him haul his bounty away was something else as it was bigger than he is!

Little whittling and a good find

 Started with five small pieces of birch.

Wound up with  two possible stiles.

I tried an even smaller portion of the branch to see if I could get the pith out but only succeeded in splitting the thing in half.  I have Saturday off so I plan on giving it another go. I have the two wooden stiles as well as one more metal one.

My mother came across and article yesterday that says that the sweetener xylitol originally was extracted from birch trees. Anyone who has eaten any quantity of this sweetener will soon be on the lookout for a washroom! So will this limit the amount of birch syrup one will consume.....stay tuned on that one.

While helping to unload the produce pallet at work yesterday, my eyes lit up when I saw the different bag that the fifty pounds of turnip came in!
I came home with about a half dozen of these(yes I know I will need more) and the brain has set to work on planning out an earthbag greenhouse! I think that will be the perfect little project to get the hang of  earthbag building.

Wild food and off grid living in Newfoundland

I thought this may be a better venue to post pictures and describe what I am doing and learning with harvesting and using wild foods. As well as the experience off living off grid. I try to do things by hand as much as possible.
I am going to document the tapping of the birch tree and sap harvest and syrup production as my first project.
I have many others planned and hope that this will spur me on a bit.  Such as coffee from dandelion roots(last year I made a tincture from the leaves as well as tried them out as greens a little too late in the year hence they were too bitter). Noodles and flour from the birch. I plan to try cattail as a root vegetable.
Last year I planted  stinging nettle seeds and if they have germinated I hope to use that as I wild food.<they do grow in Newfoundland<I could not find any so I planted this very nutritious ally.>