Maple Syrup Cooking Part Two Was A Success...But It wasn't All I Did

Today, was my second take at Maple Syrup making for 2018 and I will say it was a success. Unlike my first attempt earlier last week I did today's batch the way I had in the past...the old fashion way with a wood fire.
I started the 10 hours it took to cook this year's batch around 9:30 am, Sunday morning I modified my set-up from last year by using cinder blocks like a trench to focus the heat and sitting the grate, for the pot, on top of it. I had to get a grate out of an old portable grill because I took the one I used in the past to the Cabin for the gas grill I took up there in October. It became apparent early on this wasn't gone to work as it was bending from the weight of the pot and heat of the fire. Since I wasn't using the cast-iron wood holder, I just put it into service to hold the other grate and my pot and it worked out well. Since making maple syrup is a long process I decided to do a few other things while I boiled do the maple sap.

The first thing I did was boil some peanuts, which I did on the NuWave Cooktop. I boil peanuts quite often and it takes about three hours to do a pound. It is just salt, peanuts and water...but they are very good.

The other thing I did (besides feed wood into the fire) was cracking black walnuts. If you never have cracked black walnuts it is about as time-consuming as making maple syrup. That is why when you see them at the store they aren't cheap. This year we had a ton of black walnuts, so I finally got around to picking up close to two buckets of nuts. So, I got a cinder block, hammer and I went to work. By the time I quit working on them, I got just under a quart bag.

The reason I stopped was, because, I had to get more hands-on with the maple syrup. Most of the day  I was feeding wood and adding sap to the pot. However, about two o'clock, I stopped adding sap and began really boiling it down. Just after I ate dinner around 6:15 I moved the sap to another pot and onto the NuWave Cooktop to finish up. From here it was about 45 minutes until I got the color, smell, and sheen that signaled it was ready. Like I have said in the past I don't have a fancy hydrometer I do it by feel and once again I was successful. While cooking I wonder sometimes why I do it, but when I get done I know why...the sweet goodness of maple syrup made with my own hands.