Weekly letter – make your own maple sap and chicken orders

Hello friends! We have had a pretty great week for sugaring! The weather has been generally more favorable to get the sap running and we’ve had some really good days, including one 24 hour period where we got almost 2 gallons of sap per tap! 

Keeping chickens is better than having a dog and here’s why

People think dogs are so great. A lot of people, in fact. I read somewhere that they are in more households than any other pet in the U.S.A. And I’m no exception–save for the years around college, I don’t think more than a few weeks of my life have passed without having a dog in my home. But, if you really think about it, are dogs really THAT great? Chickens, on the other hand… now there’s an animal that’s worth owning!  

Kairos – the perfect thing at the exact right time

Dear friends, don’t you just love the energy of early spring? This time of year is crucial for anyone who is directly involved in the raising of their food. It is a time where you set everything in motion, where you essentially stock your freezer and pantry for the summer, fall, and winter to come. It’s a delicate and exciting time! Amy and I have been reverting to our college selves a bit lately, engaging in discussions of philosophy as we work and plan. We’ve been thinking especially of the concept of “kairos”.

Why Pastured Chicken is Better than Organic [updated]

All natural. Cage free. Hormone free. Free range. No antibiotics. Organic. All these terms and more clutter the labeling for “healthy” chicken and eggs throughout the stores and markets. But what do they really mean? I’ve discussed “organic” meat already (see post here), and discovered that just because something is organic doesn’t necessarily make it perfect. In the end it comes down to the farmers themselves and how they treat their animals. It turns out that some practices are more valuable than others, too.

6 simple tips to avoid smoky flavor in maple syrup boiled over an open fire

Smoky flavor can sneak into maple syrup boiled over an open fire because the smoke and debris from the fire pass over the sap as it boils.  Even if you enjoy this smokiness, it is actually considered a flaw in syrup and could even be somewhat bad for your health, depending on what you burn with.  There is no smoke flavor in syrup made in a standard evaporator setup because the fire is isolated from the sap and smoke flows out a chimney. But hey, we don’t have a sugarhouse and certainly no chimney for our evaporator setup and yet our syrup is smoke-free!