Phew! What a day! Steve and I got up early (we are almost always up before five), had a quick breakfast and got started. He prepared the canner to bottle syrup, and I started heating the syrup on the stove for candy and cream.
The cream came to temperature first, so I put it in the “sugar” room to cool. The candy syrup came to temperature soon after. I poured it into the molds.
Steve set up the small bottle canner in the kitchen because of the oppressive heat out in the sugarhouse (it was a muggy 89 degrees). He bottled 130 nip bottles for a wedding order. As soon as I finished the candy, I took over and bottled 64 assorted nip bottles to sell at the markets.
As Steve jugged syrup out in the sugarhouse, I heated syrup for coating the candy (this will be dipped tomorrow after the it is dry). Steve finished several hours later, having “jugged” 55 gallons of syrup!
After dinner, we made the cream. Our cream machine is not user friendly for one person, so we often make it together. We made 19 jars of delicious, smooth maple cream.
What an incredibly productive day!