Garden Tomato Soup

Its a cold, snowy day in mid-April and my girls are home from school for yet another snow day. This weather has us thinking about warm soup and hot sandwiches. We decided to make some tomato soup since we still have so many canned garden tomatoes on our shelf.

Tomatoes grew very well in the garden last year. We were harvesting tomatoes into November!

I researched lots of different soup recipes online and came up with a combination of ingredients that are delicious! Here's our recipe:

Ingredients:

2 quarts of canned tomatoes (ours are San Marzano tomatoes)
1 medium onion, diced (from our garden)
1 clove of chopped garlic
2 cups chicken broth (made from out broiler chickens)
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp basil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Roux:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and saute garlic and onion until soft and translucent. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Add the tomatoes and chicken stock. Stir this well and then bring to a boil. Let this boil for about 20 minutes. You want the flavors to combine and the tomatoes to soften a bit.

3. Reduce the heat and add a bay leaf, balsamic vinegar, and basil. All to simmer for a few more minutes. Meanwhile, make the roux in a separate pan.

4. Remove the bay leaf. Use a submersible blender to combine all the ingredients.

5. Add the roux to your tomato soup and whisk until well-blended.

6. Stir in the heavy cream and add additional salt and pepper to taste.

Serve and Enjoy!

The girls and I thought this tomato soup pared up nicely with a hot grilled cheese sandwich.  It was a perfect lunch for a snowy day. And it always feels great to feed my family using high quality food right from our own yard!

Grilled cheese and tomato soup - yum!

Maple Syrup - Season Finale

2018 has been a stellar year for maple syrup production in New Hampshire. We tapped our trees early in February, and the season lasted through all of March. Mother Nature gave us the perfect sapping weather and we took full advantage of it!

Some of us find it hard to wait for finished syrup...

Grand Totals for 2018

We finished up our season with a total of 22 gallons of finished syrup! This number is huge for us. For comparison, last year we produced a total of 4 gallons. This year's production is our largest ever.

We collected 776 gallons of sap with our 39 taps. An average ratio of sap to finished syrup is 40:1. However, we were able to produce 1 gallon of syrup per 35 gallons of sap. This indicates that our sap has a higher sugar content than average.

We boiled 12 separate batches of syrup and several of these boiling sessions took multiple days to finish. Admittedly, we were tired of boiling sap by the end of the season. Boiling sap is time consuming and can be physically demanding.

To produce all of this finished syrup, we used over 2 cords of firewood, plus scrap wood. This was the first year we were able to use dried cord wood in our evaporator. Normally, we forage for dead wood around the property. We haul that wood, split it, and then burn it. This adds a huge physical burden to the boiling task and makes it hard to have long, multiple-day boils.  This year, my brother-in-law donated 2+ cords of firewood to our cause. It was so convenient to have dried cord wood ready to use in the evaporator. Going forward, we will make a bigger effort to have dried wood cut, stacked and ready for syrup season.

The Great Clean Up

Without doubt, the worst part of syrup season is the cleanup. By the end of the season, we are tired and lacking motivation to put away all of the equipment. This year, April has continued to be cold and dreary. We spent a cold, drizzly day cleaning up. This involves taking down each bucket, cleaning them, and stacking them in our garage storage space. We boil the spiels to disinfect them before storage. Next, we wash each of our 4 collection barrels. Lastly, we have to wash and clean out the evaporator. This involves descaling the pan, taking out the fire bricks, disassembling the stack, and storing all of this until next spring.

Matt improvised a bucket rack for easier cleaning.

We literally spent an entire day doing these chores. It's tiring work. We all agree that a sugar shack would be a wonderful addition to our property in order to minimize some of this work. Pipe dreams!

Bee Keeping - New Adventure!

Many people are surprised to learn that bee keeping is fairly complicated. I was one of those people! I have always thought it would be a wonderful thing to try, though I honestly had no idea what I was getting into.

To start, it is recommended that new beekeepers join a local beekeeping club and start going to "bee school." This is a 6-week program where students learn from experienced beekeepers. I spent Friday nights this past winter soaking up as much of this information as possible.

Admittedly, most of the information was overwhelming. I learned that there a many ways to kill my bees. Bees can die of bacterial infections, viruses, mites, pesticides, starvation...the list goes on.  I also learned that most likely, my bees would not make it through the harsh New Hampshire winter. In fact, there is a 60% chance that the bees will die over the winter.

Despite this harsh reality, we decided to go all in and commit to purchasing two bee colonies. Once this had been decided, we had to research which hives to buy and what equipment we needed.

Matt and I have decided to try the relatively new technology of the Flow Hive. This type of hive will allow us to harvest honey without buying all of the traditional honey extraction equipment. It also limits the stress on bees during harvest time. The inventors of this hive have had one of the most successful campaigns ever on the startup site, Indiegogo.

The Flow Hive is a bit controversial in the beekeeping world. This type of hive has made beekeeping easier and more accessible to new beekeepers, like myself. Unfortunately, not everyone understands the responsibility involved in caring for bees. Many worry that having large numbers of new beekeepers will contribute to the downfall of bees, instead of helping their numbers recover. Let's hope that we can keep our bees alive and have thriving colonies!

Maple Cream

Well I'm feeling pretty happy with my two successful attempts at making maple syrup products this year. The maple candy on a stick and the maple candy in molds were both easy, fun, and delicious.

The girls and I decided to try a recipe for maple cream, sometimes referred to as maple butter. I've eaten it once in the past, but never tried making my own.

I measured 2 cups of finished maple syrup in to a sauce pan. Then, I boiled it until the syrup reached a temperature of 235 degrees. I used a digital candy thermometer for this process and it really made the process much easier.

Once the temperature reached 235 degrees, I immediately removed the saucepan from the stove and put the entire pan in a bowl of icy, cold water. This brings the temperature down quickly.

Once the temperature reaches 100 degrees, remove it from the ice bath and start stirring it. The recipe I followed suggested using a wooden spoon. I decided to opt for a hand mixer. It still took 20 minutes of stirring. You'll know it's done when the syrup becomes lighter in color and is the consistency of peanut butter. You'll be tempted to give up, but stick with it!

My kitchen helper, Addy, took a few turns at mixing the syrup.

The finished product is delicious and can be used on pretty much anything. The maple cream will stay good in the refrigerator for a long time, since sugar is the only ingredient.

The finished product: Maple Cream

Maple Candy in Sugar Molds

This year I've been really excited to try making different products with our finished maple syrup. I have tried various times in the past, with little success. Historically, we haven't always produced enough syrup to justify "wasting" any on an unsuccessful recipe.

However, we have already produced 7 gallons of syrup this year and the forecast continues to look good for a long sap season. So, the girls and I decided to try making maple candy using sugar molds.

First, we boiled the finished maple syrup to a temperature of 240 degrees. I stirred it continuously while it was heating over the oven. It's best to use a sugar thermometer if you have one in order to be as accurate as possible.

Once the boiling syrup reaches 240 degrees, remove it from the heat and let it cool down to 175 degrees. Do not stir it during this time.

As soon as the syrup reaches 175 degrees, start whisking it until the syrup changes to a lighter color. This will only take a few minutes. The syrup will start to harden immediately. As quickly as possible, spoon the hot syrup into your sugar molds (or any container will work).

Let the sugar molds cool on a cooling rack until they can be removed easily from the molds. They should pop right out and be ready to eat! These make great little gifts for family, friends, and teachers!

Maple Syrup Candy - success!

Maple Candy on a Stick

The girls and I are avid readers of the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, "Little House on the Prairie." In the first book, we read about how those early pioneers would drip hot syrup onto cold snow and enjoy a sugary treat.  So, of course, we had to try it!

First, we had the girls (and Cousin Alice) collect snow. We had them pile the snow into a foil caserole dish, but anything with ample surface space would work.

Next, I heated a half-cup of finished maple syrup in a sauce pan until it was boiling. Then, we used a spoon to drizzle ribbons of hot syrup across the cold snow in our caserole dish.

Drizzle the hot syrup in thin ribbons on to the cold snow.

Once the hot syrup made contact with the cold snow, it started to firm up quickly. We had the girls use kabob sticks to roll the cooling sap onto the end of the stick. This wasn't really a necessary step, but it made eating much less messy.

The last and final step is to eat your maple syrup candy! The kids enjoyed this activity and the delicious outcome. The syrup had a chewy, taffy-like consistency once it cooled on the stick. 

Addy and Caitlin enjoying their maple candy.

Maple Syrup Season Part 1

Full buckets of sap mean more syrup for us!

This spring has been great for maple syrup producers. We tapped our trees on February 15th.  This is one of the earliest starts we've had since we started making syrup 8 years ago. The weather has been perfect for good sap flow, which means we have had plenty of sap to turn into syrup!

Good Sap Conditions
Sap flows best when the nighttime temperatures drop below freezing and the daytime temperatures are in the 40's. All of this good temperature variation means that the sap is flowing and we are collecting gallons of good sap for boiling! We can leave our taps in and continue to collect it until the trees start to bud. This will happen as soon as the weather stays consistently warm. It's impossible to know how long a sap season will last. Some years, it's only a few weeks. Other years the sap season lasts for over a month.

Preparation
Before we can tap the trees, we have to clean out each of the buckets and boil each of the spiles. In addition, we have to clean out the sap collection barrels. Cleaning the buckets is tedious and time consuming. Each one needs to be scrubbed, cleaned, and rinsed. None of us enjoy washing buckets but it has to be done. This year, we cleaned all of our buckets. There were 36 in total.

Tapping the Trees
Once the conditions are right and the equipment is cleaned, it's time to tap the trees. This is always a fun day and we often get lots of family volunteers to help. Matt drills the hole and hammers in the spile. The girls hang the buckets and I place the lids on each one. It's always gratifying to hear sap dripping into a freshly hung bucket.

This year's group of volunteers!

Collecting the Sap

Once the sap starts flowing we collect the sap every day or two, as needed. We empty the sap from each bucket into a 58 gallon food-grade barrel that is strapped into the back of our Polaris Ranger. Some years, there is too much snow to drive the Ranger from tree to tree. Those years, we have to empty each bucket, one at a time. Thankfully, the snow has melted enough that we can use the Ranger to help with the work load!

Any visitors who come to our house in the Spring are subject to help collect sap!

Once the collection barrel is full, it's time to boil sap and make some syrup! I'll detail that process in a future blog post!

Signs of Spring

Finally, it's time to tap the trees!

Spring felt like it came a bit early this year and there are no complaints here! We had a glorious stretch of warm weather in February and it got us all excited to be outside again. It's always encouraging after a long winter to start to see signs of spring approaching.

Chickens
It's a sure sign that spring is coming when our chickens finally start laying eggs again. We averaged 4 per day throughout the winter. This is pretty depressing when you consider that we have 23 laying hens. So, it's always exciting when the egg basket starts to fill up again. The girls get very excited every evening to give us the daily tally of eggs that have been collected. We are getting 12-15 every day now.

Our flock of chickens have started laying again!

Warm weather also means that the chicken coop has thawed out enough to finally clean it out. The girls are always happy when their home has fresh pine shavings!

A spring thaw allows for a coop clean-out.

Maple Syrup
Once the daily temperatures start to be above freezing, while the nighttime temperature stay below freezing, it's the perfect time to tap our Sugar Maple Trees. We have a modest number of Sugar Maple Trees on our property but it's enough to make it worth our while to tap them and make syrup. Tapping the trees is always a fun day for our family. The kids enjoy hanging the buckets and watching the spile for any drips of sap.

Caitlin and Addy hanging sap buckets.

Seeds
Mid-February means it's time to plant my pepper seeds. This year, I am using seeds that I saved from our vegetable garden last year. It's my first time using our own seeds and I'm hopeful that they will sprout.  We have one big, south-facing window in our home and I cram it full seed trays to get a head start on the garden.

Seed packets filled with seeds we saved from last year's pepper harvest.

Honey Bees
This spring we have decided to take on a new endeavor.  We are going to add bee hives to our ever-expanding list of hobbies.  I honestly don't know anything about what it takes to raise bees, so I've enrolled in "bee school" with our local bee club. Matt and I have been spending our spare time researching all we can in preparation for our two new hives. I'll be blogging more about this experience if you are interested in learning with me!