Syrup

I boiled maple sap on Saturday.  I had about 7 gallons collected from my two red maple trees.  I had taps in a couple box elder trees but I never got any sap from those trees.  So this was purely red maple sap.  My two largest kettles weren't big enough to hold all the sap so I added more as the quantity boiled down.  Saturday was a nice day so I opened my kitchen window and my deck door to air the sweet humidity out of the room.  I set a fan to blow right at the stove to move the humid air around.  I wonder if some sugar didn't get into the air.  The ceiling might be sticky.  I don't know.  My kitchen has a vaulted ceiling so I can't reach it anyway.  I started boiling the sap at 9:30 a.m. and finished about 7 p.m.  I probably could have stopped about 6:30 and had a little more syrup.  It's hard to know exactly when to quit.  I don't like the really thick syrup.  I know they say it's done when the thermometer reads 219 degrees F. but after dropping my candy thermometer into the boiling sap twice, I gave up on that and just called it done.  I tasted it.  It tastes really good.  This was a fun project.  I will definitely do it again.