Log Cabin Wilderness Homestead, Maple Syrup, Wild Edibles, Primitive Skills

Description

In our quest to live a self reliant lifestyle at the wilderness homestead, my wife, dog and I harvest sap from the forest around the log cabin and make maple syrup, one of the most accessible and abundant wild edibles in this area. Maple syrup can be processed using primitive skills, but this year, we use more traditional methods, inserting metal spiles into the maple trees and collecting the sap in metal buckets. We harvest the sap when the temperature is above freezing and boil it over an open fire in stainless steel pans.

Wild edibles in the Canadian wilderness are hard to come by, especially in the winter and early spring. Maple sap starts to run as soon as the daytime temperatures rise above 0C (32 Fahrenheit) and the night temperatures dip below freezing. It is slightly sweet and very refreshing when you drink it pure right out of the tree, but in order to make it into a syrup that stores for a long time withough going bad, you have to reduce it by about 40/1. Therefore, it takes 40 gallons of sap from a sugar maple tree to produce 1 gallon of maple syrup. You can harvest and consume sap from other trees, like other maple species and birch trees, but it's not quite as sweet and the ratio is not as good, approximately 60/1 in some cases.

Because spring has been cold this year, we have only harvested about 35 gallons of sap from 25 trees as of the date this video is published. Typically, we should have much more than that and should get hundreds of gallons. April may be better in the coming days for production however.

If we had more pails and spiles, which we can purchase relatively cheaply, we could tap at least a few hundred trees on our property. While the land here is not very productive for growing crops or other wild edibles, we could potentially produce enough syrup to barter and/or sell to offset our other food costs and to procure other foods that we cannot grow or harvest here. Realistically, we could harvest from the property in abundance - sap, mushrooms, raspberries, chaga, spruce tips, cattails and a few minor plant species as well as wild game, such as ducks, geese, bear, deer, moose, rabbit, raccoon, grouse, woodcock, frogs and turtles.

Links to products I use at the cabin;

Dog bowl - https://www.facebook.com/northernpinecustoms/

https://www.instagram.com/northern.pine.customs/

Coffee grinder - https://www.redroostertradingcompany.com/

Pancake Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 1/2 TSP baking powder

1 TSP salt

1 TBSP maple sugar

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

3 TBSP melted butter

To see what I’m up to during the rest of the week, please follow me on my other online channels;

Website: http://myselfreliance.com/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MySelfReliance/

Personal Facebook Page (Shawn James) – https://www.facebook.com/shawn.james.msr

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/myselfreliance/

Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 20042

Barrie, Ontario

L4M 6E9

Canada

Tags: Self Reliance,off grid,log cabin,primitive technology,diy,survival,primitive,bushcraft,forest,wood,cabin,tiny home,woods,My Self Reliance,maple syrup,dog,primitive skills,wilderness,wilderness homestead,homestead,wild edible,wild edibles

Video Transcription

(fire crackling) (metal squeaking) (hammer tapping) (sap drips) (sap drips) (hammer pounding) (sap dripping) (hammer pounding) (sap drips) (sap dripping) (fire crackling) (fire crackling) (snow crunches) (door squeaks) (gunshot fires) (gunshot fires) (snow crunching) (metal clangs) (snow crunches) (metal clangs) (snow crunches) (branches cracking) (flint scraping) (flint scraping) (fire crackles) (wood thuds) (metal scrapes) (sled scraping) (snow crunches) (water pouring) (metal clangs) (metal clangs) (sled dragging) (snow crunches) (snow crunches) (water pouring) (metal clangs) (metal clangs) (water pours) (water pours) (water pours) (log thuds) (water pouring) (jars clanking (jars clanking) (water pouring) (bag crackles) (coffee beans rustling) (gears grinding) (glass grating) (coffee dripping) (knife rasping) (knife rasping) (snow crunching) (fire crackling) (stones scraping) (footsteps thudding) (footsteps thudding) (stones clank) (stones clanking) (metal clangs) (fire crackles) (metal clangs) (glassware clanks) (glassware clanks) (glassware clanks) (glassware clanks) (water pouring) (water splashes) (water pouring) (metal clangs) (metal clangs) (water pouring) (metal clangs) (metal clangs) (water pouring) (water pouring) (water pouring) (water trickling) (fire crackling) (water pouring) (water pouring) (steam hissing) (snow crunching) (branches creaking) (fire crackling) (sled dragging) (water pouring) (water pouring) - Go, Captain Fresno. (water trickling) (water pouring) (pot clanks) (meat sizzles) (meat sizzles) (acoustic guitar music) (dishes clanking) (acoustic guitar music) (silverware clinking) (acoustic guitar music) Hold on. Wait for me. (knife scraping) Okay, good girl. Go ahead. (birds chirping) (metal clanks) (syrup trickling) (syrup pouring) (syrup pouring) (syrup pouring) (syrup pouring) (dishes clink) (fat sizzles) (food sizzling) Yeah, warm maple syrup. (snow crunches) (loon cries)