[bunnyruth]

Good Morning Folks,
My name is Ruth and I have been enjoying reading the diary on this site for several months and decided to join the forum.  I live in the northeast part of the US, New Hampshire specifically, and and have enjoyed gardening on a large scale for a number of years.  We do not have any animals at this time.  Well, we have two loving cats who are both good hunters but that is all.  In time I would like to add chickens and goats to our life but it is not the time yet.

Our growing season is quite limited in the best of years but for the past few years it has been even more challenging because we have had far too much rain and the temperatures have stayed too cool for many of our favorites to grow well (tomatoes, peppers, hot pepper and aubergines).  But we do the best we can with what we get.  We do lots of bottling of our veg and fruits to last us through the long winter and are also very fortunate to have quite a few mature maple trees around our house and each year make our own Maple Syrup in March.  Although I do not have any dairy animals myself, I have access to fresh raw milk and enjoy cheesemaking as well. 

I look forward to reading more about you all on the forums and learning. 

Hope you all have a wonderful day!
Ruth in New Hampshire, US     

[carole]

Hi and welcome from me in today a very wet Brittany, France.

Currently no garden to speak of as the pigs take up so much of my time, all the cuddles and tickles they demand.

Looking forward to your imput in this friendly forum

Carole

[Troubled Waters]

Hello and welcome.

So what veggies do you do really well with at the moment?
Helen

[bunnyruth]

Thanks for the welcome.  At the moment we are harvesting and putting up green beans (string beans) and they are doing quite well.  We just finifhed drying garlic which also did very well this year.  This weekend we plan to pull half of the onions and start curing those for storage.  Our spring crops did well (peas, strawberries, cabbage, broccoli and asparagus) plus the herbs have been almost out of control in their growth.

Hoping for some extended heat and sun! 
Ruth in New Hampshire 

[Tullywood Farm]

Hello Ruth

Welcome to the forum.

I am hoping to make cheese soon so keep posted - also would really love to know how you make maple syrup.

We breed Pedigree Rare breed pigs, and have a butchery on farm that we make sausages and burgers in as well as ham, bacon and mince etc.  We hope to do butter and cheese on a small scale soon. We have our own eggs and chickens for meat occasionally, and keep a lot of animals for fun too.


Julie

[Hilarysmum]

Hi and welcome from wet and miserable Brittany.  I would have a garden if it were not for the weather, ducks, chickens and pigs all of whom consider any planting I do as either food or bedding.

[sandy]

Morning from central Scotland and the sun is shinning . nice to make your own cheese!!! I always want to see photos when people post stuff as New hampshire sound lovely!!! Look forward to your posts and discussions, Welcome

[sheila]

hello and welcome to the forum.I have just been making string bean pickle and Plum and Rum jam. I wish I had your Maple syrup though!

[bunnyruth]

Thanks again for the welcoming messages. 

A couple people have asked about making Maple Syrup.  It is a relatively easy process to describe but is a bit of a grueling, time consuming process.  But when I am enjoying the results I tend to forget all of the work.  The basics are that you collect sap from the maple tree (Sugar Maple, Red Maple or Silver Maple) by putting in a "spile" or tap and allowing the sap to drip into some type of bucket (we use plastic water jugs that I get from friends).  When you have collected enough sap to make it worth the effort, you just boil it all down.  It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup so you always want to do this outside or you could steam all the wall paper of your walls!  Not to mention the mold problem you would create.  When it reaches a particular point (7 degrees F above the boiling point of water for your altitude) it is maple syrup. 

The sap only runs when the day time temperature is above freezing and the night time temperatures are below freezing.  In our area this occurs in late March to early April, depending on the year.  it is an enormous amount of work, collecting the sap every day, sometimes twice a day and then boiling it all down, which can take 12 or more hours of constant tending.  But the season only lasts for a few weeks each year. 

I have not been posting here long enough to figure out how to post photos of our own work.  However, this link will bring you to a more detailed description with pictures:  http://www.massmaple.org/myo.html

I am enjoying reading everyone's posts, thanks for all of the sharing you do.

Ruth in NH   

[Rosemary]

Hi and welcome.

[MM]

Hello!

[doganjo]

Do the trees not mind their sap being removed?   Is it like our blood and is replaced pretty quickly?

[bunnyruth]

No, they do not mind at all, as long as they are mature enough and you do not overtax them.  The tree must be at least 10 inches in diameter to tap it safely.  And you should only put in one tap per tree unless it is over 20 inches in diameter.  You also need to remove the tap when the sap turns yellow and let it heal over.  When you tap it the next year you need to tap in a different place on the tree because scar tissue will have formed.  But the sap does replenish itself, just as you said, like our blood if you don't take out too much. 

When we lived in Maine many people tapped their maples and we saw hundred of buckets or plastic jugs hanging from trees.  There was one house where they clearly had not taken the time to learn how to do it because every tree had at least three jugs hanging from them, some of the trees were less than 3 inches in diameter but still had three jugs on them with string tying them on to support the weight.  By the next year, more than half their trees had died from the stress. 

In Maine we had two giant maples that we always put in two taps, but other than that, just one tap and only for about 3-4 weeks.

It is a lot of work but a lot of fun as well.

Ruth in NH

p.s. thanks for your words of encouragement about our lost cat.

[Rainyplace]

Hi Ruth
Where about in N.H. are you? We are just back from New Hampshire, a favourite destination for us. We have friends in Canterbury who we visit. We love to bring home the large cans of Maple Syrup from their local sugar house. It certainly increases our baggage weight!
Welcome to the forum.
Jo

[bunnyruth]

Hi Jo,
thanks for the welcome.  We live less than an hour south of Canterbury, in a little town near Manchester.  We go up to Canterbury several times per year as we have a museum membership at the Canterbury Shaker Village, just went up there last month for their Lavender and Raspberry Day festival. 

I am so surprised (pleasantly so) to hear that someone would come all the way to New Hampshire for vacation as it is so rural, no big cities or cultural attractions to visit.  But it is a nice place to live and I am delighted to hear that you enjoy vacationing here.  Do you ever come in the autumn?  I think that is the most beautiful time to be here with the glorious autumn colors we have.

Thanks again for the welcome!
Ruth in NH