DATA COLLECTION.

The swans are back at the mill pond and lining up a nesting site but so are the geese.  This one got a little too close and was quickly chased off.









Beau had to do a little research for his Field Hydrology Lab class gathering some data along the trout stream. 



With last weeks three plus inches of rain the stream was a little cloudy.
















It was windy today so we left the fly rods at home, grabbed the spinning gear and hit the stream, after Beau got his data collected.

 We each caught fish and missed a few too. 

GOOBER PEAS

                          Boiled Peanuts

♫Sitting by the roadside on a summer's day
Chatting with my mess-mates, passing time away
Lying in the shadows underneath the trees
Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas.

Peas, peas, peas, peas
Eating goober peas
Goodness, how delicious,
Eating goober peas.♫

"Goober Peas" by P. Nutt and A. Pindar, 1866

Tuesday evening I walked down to the sugar bush to take down the sugar shack.  The sap ran well that day so I gathered up 35 gallons to boil down this weekend.  The rest of  the sap got a little funky and just wouldn't pass the quality control standards.













So, that was it for my sugar season. Or was it?  Boiled peanuts can take 8 hours, and even much longer, so as long as you are prepared to stew them literally all day long {and sometimes into the next day} you can still have boiled peanuts any time of the year.  With a pound of peanut from Marty, I put a batch of sap on the rocket stove to boil up a batch of goobers.






The rocket stove brought the sap to a rolling boil in just a matter of minutes.








 Boiled peanuts have a unique taste, and texture, not hard like roasted peanuts, yet tasting like peanuts. This may confuse, or delight the first time eater.






Plain boiled peanuts taste similar to edamame, but more savory but boil them up in some spring time sap with a mix of seasoning and you've got boiled earthnuts,  a truly unique, and wonderful taste.

Was gathering up all that sap a waste of time?  I don't think so.  I got about a month of timber time in this spring and two good weekends of making maple.  I watched the timber awake in the spring.  Changing from white to brown to a hint of green.  After tearing down last years stove in early spring and rebuilding and upgrading my spring camp.  Next, spring all the pieces will be in place and ready for another syrup season.  I'm looking forward to changing gears to trout fishing, mushroom hunting and baseball..