Skylar fired up our elegant, mini-maple syrup evaporator, fabricated from an old metal barrel and fueled by a rip-roaring wood fire. She spent the day boiling down cider into apple molasses. I acted as support staff, cutting up old boards, scrap-wood, random spruce and hemlock poles and log-ends that had seen better days and were ready to be transformed into ashes which we’ll spread around the apple trees. The stove is designed to gobble up a lot of wood and actually prefers dry soft-wood. It was a good way to clean up a lot of wood debris.

By mid-morning, fragrant apple-steam filled the barnyard air, and the fresh cider was bubbling and boiling. The cider is made entirely of true “sweet” apples so the final product will have no acidity. Our plan is to concentrate the cider into a shelf-stable, storable, sugar-substitute. It was past dark when the fire had died down enough to quit for the day. Nearly 20 gallons had been boiled down with another 20 to go. The finished product will be pure, locally-sourced, home-made, ultra-organic, additive-free, love-infused, sustainable sweetener. No oil wells were drilled to make this product! No forests were cut down!

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
The Bard