>> As much as we count on them, they count on us all the more.

>> To nurture their lives... >> With the same commitments.

>> Manna Pro -- Nurturing life.

>> Meyer Hatchery offers more than 160 breeds of poultry and carries a full line of meat, supplies, gifts, and decor.

With nearly four decades of experience, the Meyer family is committed to supporting our customers through their entire poultry journey.

Learn more at MeyerHatchery.com.

♪ [ Horse snorts ] >> It's a beautiful winter day here at in Maine, and we are headed to a maple farm.

We're gonna learn how maple syrup is made, and then I'm heading home to make a delicious maple walnut cake, and a fun DIY project.

It's gonna be a great day.

[ Bells jangling ] [ Rooster crows ] I'm Lisa Steele, author, blogger, and fifth-generation chicken keeper.

I live in rural Maine with my husband, flock of chickens, ducks, and geese, Winston the corgi, and Linus the indoor/outdoor barn cat.

We moved to Maine for the peace and serenity.

We wanted a simpler life and to step back in time, where there are still corner stores and your neighbors still know your name.

♪ Welcome to my farm.

[ Duck quacking ] [ Bells jangling ] ♪ [ Horse snorts ] >> Hey, Tyler.

Thanks for this sleigh ride through your woods.

It's beautiful.

And you need to introduce me to your friends.

>> Well, this one is Olivia.

She's 7 years old.

And on the other side is Katie.

She's 20 years old.

And they've been working together for about four years now.

>> And they're huge compared to regular horses.

>> Yeah, they got some size to them.

>> [ Laughs ] So, they're made to pull sleighs and sleds and -- >> Yep, they're draft horses.

They're made to pull instead of ride on.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And they're just kind of more like a lineman in football versus a running back.

But they're built to be heavy and move big loads.

♪ >> I'm so excited.

This morning, I am at the beautiful Eureka Farms in Palmyra, Maine, right down the street from my house, where they are gearing up for Maine Maple Sunday.

I'm gonna talk to the owner, Hollis, and his son, Seth, and find out exactly how maple syrup is made.

Hi, Hollis.

>> Good morning, Lisa.

Thanks for being here at Eureka Farms today.

>> You have such a beautiful place.

Thank you so much for taking the time out to chat with me.

>> We are delighted.

>> So, I'm really curious.

Tell me about your family's history on this farm.

>> My son and I bought the farm in 2010.

We've been here since then, and we've tried to apply our philosophy of making it a little better when we leave than when we got here.

I've got a farm background.

I come from Aroostook County.

I tell people I'm as far south as I'm going.

>> [ Laughs ] >> And my dad and his family were in the potato business.

I grew up in that business and they had their own brand of Maine potatoes and it was called Eureka brand.

>> Okay.

>> That's the name, Eureka Farms -- that's where it came from.

I'm retired and my son is retiring this year and we've got a lot of irons in the fire here by choice.

So, it's pretty special to us.

>> So, how do you make the move from potatoes to maple syrup?

It seems like a little bit of a jump.

>> Yeah, it's a little bit of a jump.

When I was 10 years old, my dad showed me how to make maple syrup, and I've always said it was like a disease.

It got in my blood, and it never left.

>> [ Laughs ] >> So, it's always -- it's something I've always done all my life, and one of our goals when we were looking for land was to find a place where we would be able to do this on a commercial scale.

And we have that, so we're pretty fortunate.

So, I think my son, Seth, is looking for you.

He's gonna give you a little tour of the grove and share some information that he has about our operation.

>> I can't wait.

Thanks.

>> Great.

Thank you.

♪ >> Thank you so much for bringing me out to your maple grove, Seth.

I'm really excited to learn the whole process of tapping trees.

>> Well, it's a pleasure having you here today, Lisa.

There's a number of different processes to extract sap from a maple tree, but it all starts with basically just drilling a hole into the tree.

The three will heal itself.

It's a living organism.

It'll heal itself, and over time you won't even see the hole.

You know, as far as the sap extraction from the tree, you know, we're just taking a small portion of the sap that's feeding all the limbs that are above us, and so the tree has the rest of the trunk all the way around to feed it sap, so it doesn't hurt the tree a bit.

>> So, show me what we do.

>> All right.

We like to use a nice, sharp drill bit so it doesn't chew up the inside of the tree and we have a nice, smooth hole.

And we just simply...

In and out, just like that.

>> So, you went in a couple inches.

>> Yeah, it's about an inch or so in there.

>> Okay.

>> So, then we just simply put our spile in there...and give it a few taps so there's a decent seal on there.

>> That's why it's called tapping a tree.

>> That's tapping a tree.

That's exactly it.

All right.

Then we just simply hang a bucket on there, put a cover on to keep the snow out.

>> So, how soon will the sap start flowing?

>> Mother Nature is the one who decides it all, but, you know, 20 degrees or so in the evening or at night and then 40-ish during the day with some nice, bright sunshine -- that'll spark the tree to start thinking it's springtime and start creating some leaves.

>> I love this 'cause it's so traditional and you just drive by and sometimes see them on the side of the road, but you don't actually collect the sap this way any longer.

>> No, we like to put these out for people to see.

It's not the best way to produce maple sap.

You know, there's a new means.

We use a vacuum system now to pull sap out of the tree.

And that's what producers are using mostly now.

>> So, let's go see that.

>> All right.

Let's go.

♪ >> Okay, Seth, so, what are we looking at here?

>> So, we looked at the traditional way before, and this is our pipeline.

So, we run a vacuum system here.

So, the sap goes, you know, through the tap.

Just like we tapped the other tree, it runs through the hose and then it goes down to a bigger hose and then it goes into a sap-collection tank.

>> Seems a lot easier than individual buckets and dumping them out, and it keeps the bugs, out, too.

>> Yeah, yeah, it is a lot easier, no doubt about it, less labor-intensive.

You go to one collection point instead of, you know, hundreds, thousands sometimes.

>> Right.

And these stay up year round.

>> They do.

We do our best to try to clean these out each year.

You can tell that these had sap in them last year, and they still look pretty clean.

>> Mm-hmm.

So, what, your farm, you originally started with the bucket method and switched to this somewhere along the way?

>> Yes.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

We did start with the buckets, and, over time, we've started doing our pipeline more and more each year.

>> How many gallons of sap do you collect, and then, how much syrup does that translate into?

>> For sap to syrup ratio, it's about 40 gallons to 1.

So 40 gallons of sap will make you a gallon of syrup.

>> So, this year, how many trees will you have tapped on your property?

>> We'll be around a thousand taps this year, we think.

It's kind of hard to tell when you're going through them and putting up the lines, but when we start putting out the taps, we'll have a good count, but it'll be around 1,000.

>> So, I noticed this is sort of sloped downhill, I assume for a reason.

>> Yes.

>> Gravity.

So where does all this sap end up?

>> Well, we have a couple of collection points around the property, and we'll go down and check out one of them.

>> Great.

>> This is what we call a sap collection area.

>> Okay.

>> And, basically -- we don't have it quite hooked up yet, but in the very near future, our vacuum pump will be pulling a vacuum on the pipeline, pulling the sap out of the trees.

It'll come through the releaser, and then, as the releaser fills up, it'll dump it into our tank, and we'll come along with our Gators, and we'll move the sap, take it back up to the sugar house.

>> So, this is the sugar shack.

>> This is it.

>> This is where it all happens.

Tell me about this.

>> This is a wood-fired evaporator.

A lot of producers are using oil-fired, but we still have wood.

>> Okay.

>> So this is where -- this is where all the sap gets evaporated and turned into syrup.

The sap, we bring it in, and then, eventually, it goes into the big tank upstairs.

It gets gravity-fed down into the back of the evaporator, and through specific gravity, as it gets thicker, it'll move through this pan and become closer to syrup as it goes.

And then, it goes down into the finish pan on the front.

>> So it knows when it's done, and it moves into the pan.

>> Exactly, exactly.

>> That's pretty cool.

And you said it's a wood burner, so you have to put logs in it.

>> Right.

Yeah, we have to fill wood every 6 1/2 minutes to keep it going.

>> After you collect the sap, how quickly do you have to get it in here, or does it matter?

Can it sit for a while?

>> No, you want to get it in as quick as you can, 'cause the longer it sits, the starches eat up the sugars, and it takes more to make the syrup.

>> I don't know much about maple syrup, but I do know that there are different grades.

>> There is.

The state of Maine requires that we grade our syrup, and we've got a couple of representations here of the different grades.

So the lighter would be in the golden delicate, and then it goes into an amber rich and a dark and a very dark.

>> And you grade them just looking at them and the color?

>> They provide us with samples so we can grade it that way, but there's also a machine that you can put a sample into, and it'll grade it for you.

Syrup becomes different colors based on the time of year that it's taken, so the later in the year, the darker the syrup -- most of the time.

♪ [ Ducks quacking ] ♪ >> I brought home some gorgeous maple syrup from the farm earlier today, and I am excited to share with you a recipe for a maple-walnut cake that uses not only the maple syrup but also some of my fresh eggs.

This recipe is really easy.

First, I'm going to whisk my dry ingredients and then get my wet ingredients blended, then mix the two together, add some walnuts, and put it in the oven.

So, first, I'm going to add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour.

Then, I'm going to add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.

And 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt.

And then I'm just gonna lightly whisk it to make sure everything is combined.

So, in my large mixing bowl, I am going to add two sticks of butter that I have at room temperature.

And I'm gonna mix that up a little bit.

[ Motor whirring ] Into that, I am going to add 1 1/4 cup of maple syrup.

I'm using maple syrup in place of all the sugar in this recipe.

In a lot of baking recipes, you can substitute maple syrup for sugar.

It's more nutritious, for one thing, and it adds a really great flavor.

You might just have to cook things a little bit longer 'cause it is a little bit more liquid.

And I'm just gonna add a little bit of vanilla-bean paste.

[ Motor whirring ] I'm just gonna scrape down the sides of the bowl and then add some sour cream.

So, I have 3/4 cup of sour cream.

You could also add Greek yogurt instead, if you wanted to.

Just makes it really moist and adds a little bit of fat to the recipe.

[ Motor whirring ] Then I'm gonna add two eggs.

Add them one at a time and make sure each one is combined before I add the second one.

[ Motor whirring ] Then I'll add my second egg.

I just collected these eggs this morning.

My spring layers have been laying great through the winter, so we've had eggs for baking all winter long, which is really great, 'cause normally, the chickens slow down with the shorter days, but those baby chicks will lay their first winter, providing us with eggs while everybody else takes a winter break.

[ Motor whirring ] All right, that looks good.

Now I'm going to add my dry ingredients a little bit at a time.

[ Motor whirring ] On low speed so the flour doesn't shoot all over the place.

[ Motor whirring ] All right.

So that looks really good.

Now we're just gonna stir in some walnuts that I just kind of rough chopped, maybe about -- I don't know -- 1/2 cup.

Nice, generous 1/2 cup.

Just like the maple syrup can substitute for sugar in recipes, you can also give your baby chicks maple syrup this spring.

You like to give them sugar water for the first couple days to give them a little bit more energy, especially if you get them shipped through the mail, and maple syrup has iron and calcium and magnesium, lots of B vitamins, so it's a nice substitute for the sugar water to give them some energy and a good start in life or if someone has heat exhaustion or just a chicken looks like she's not doing well.

Little bit of maple syrup or maple syrup mixed into the water is a good idea.

So that looks good.

I'm just going to get it into my pan and then get it into the oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until the toothpick in the center comes up clean.

I have an 8x8 dish that I have lined with parchment paper to make the cake come out easier, and I like to leave it overlapping over the edges so it's easier to lift it out when it's done.

♪ ♪ While the cake is baking, since I have the oven on, I think I have just enough time to make some maple bacon, because -- come on -- why not?

Maple bacon?

I've got some fresh, thick-cut local bacon here, and it's gonna be perfect.

So, what I did was, I lined a baking sheet with some tinfoil, and then I just put a wire metal rack on top of it that the bacon can go on.

Just gonna lay my bacon out in strips.

♪ So, I'm going to add about 1/3 cup of brown sugar to my bowl and then about 2 tablespoons of maple syrup.

I'm just gonna mix it all together until it's combined.

Maybe add a tiny bit more maple syrup, 'cause I want it so I can brush it onto the bacon strips.

And then, with a brush, I'm just going to brush the bacon strips with the mixture.

So that looks great, and now I'm just going to bring some fresh pepper on top of the bacon strips.

The timing worked out great.

The cake is about ready to come out of the oven, so I'll put the bacon in at the same 350 degrees for about 30 to 35 minutes until it's all nice and crispy.

♪ While the cake is cooling, I'm just gonna make a quick glaze for it using confectioner's sugar and a little bit of maple syrup.

So I'm just gonna add 2 cups of confectioner's sugar to my mixing bowl and then drizzle in maple syrup until it's a nice consistency that I can pour it over the cake.

♪ [ Motor whirring ] ♪ So, that looks really good.

And I guess that was about 1/2 cup maybe that I added in.

And I'm just going to frost the cake, and I'll just top them off with some chopped walnuts, and they'll be ready to enjoy.

♪ It snowed last night, so it's a really good day to stay inside and do some crafts, and I have one that I've been wanting to do for a while.

We got some new chicks this past spring, and I wanted to make a welcome sign for the coop with everybody's name on the board.

I decided to do it with eye hooks, so as I add new chickens, I can just add more names to the sign.

This would make a really great gift for a new chicken keeper.

You could make them the first couple names, and then they could add onto it as they add on to their flock, because we all know how chicken math works.

To get started, I just found some scrap wood.

This was just in the barn.

It's just weathered scrap wood, or you can go buy 1x2s and cut them into 6-inch lengths.

At the top of the sign, I did make a longer, bigger board that says "Welcome."

I've already done that.

And then, the names will hang off of this.

So, you want your board so you have enough room for two names to hang side by side.

If you are talented, you can certainly hand-letter the names.

I am not, so I like to print them out in different fonts on Word.

Just print them to size.

And then, I have my template and some tracing paper, and I can just trace the name right onto each board, which makes it super easy.

So, with a pencil, I will just trace the name.

I am doing one for Abigail right now.

I generally don't name my chicks when I first get them because I like them to grow up a little bit, learn what their personalities are.

I might name them according to the color egg they lay.

That's how Sage got her name.

I do wait until they get a little bit older.

I also have learned my lesson because we have ended up with a lot of little roosters with little girl names.

If you wait until you know if you have a rooster or a hen, it makes it easier to name your chickens.

So, now I've traced my name on my board, and then, just using some white acrylic paint and a small paint brush, I am just going to paint the name on the board.

This doesn't have to be perfect.

The chickens definitely don't care.

And it's kind of rustic anyway.

I love to use old, weathered boards with things 'cause then it doesn't look like something you just bought at the store.

And I'm just gonna let that dry and keep painting the other names.

♪ Once all the signs are dry, I'm just going to use a drill with a real small drill bit.

[ Motor whirring ] And I'm gonna drill a little pilot hole, and then I've got these little teeny eye hooks.

And, again, this is a great way to use up some extras, if you have some random eyes and hooks.

They don't all have to be the same size, but I'm just gonna screw two into the top and then two hooks into the bottom.

And all of them, except for the bottom two signs, are going to have a hook and an eye in them so they can just be hooked together once they're done.

I've got all my signs painted and all my hooks in, and one last thing I'm going to do is just thread some clothesline through the top part and tie a knot in each end to kind of keep that -- so I can hang this in the coop.

And just tie a little pretty ribbon on one side, and my sign is done.

♪ ♪ [ Chickens clucking ] Chickens take dust baths to clean their feathers, and it's nice to have a dust-bath area for them year 'round.

I have it in this covered area, and one of the neat things about living in Maine, we have a wood stove for the first time, and wood ash is really great to add to the dust bath.

It's sort of like diatomaceous earth in that it'll kill any bugs and parasites and things.

Wood ash also has vitamin K in it, which is a blood-clotting agent, and it's also a detoxifier.

There's properties in the charcoal that help flush toxins out of the system.

And the chickens love taking dust baths in it.

Come on.

Come on.

In the winter, I'm a little bit more lenient with treats.

I'll give them a little more scratch and seeds and things.

It helps keep them warm, puts a little weight on.

Everybody needs a little extra weight in the winter.

Keep warm.

Right?

There you go, Claribel.

Good girl.

I don't know if the chickens really appreciate how pretty their coop is, but I really do.

I put curtains over the windows.

In the winter, I pull them shut at night to try to keep more body heat in because a lot of heat is lost through the windows.

And then, in the summer, it keeps the hot sun on the other side of the coop out.

This little ladle dispenser is great for snacks, and I just like to sometimes surprise the girls with secret snacks, so if somebody wanders in here, they've got some scratch grains or some grubs or something to munch on.

When you're out and about at a yard sale or a flea market, you know, always be thinking how you could use something in your chicken coop, 'cause this works just perfect for their snacks.

♪ This actually is a vintage matchbox that people used to hang on the wall and put wooden matches in, but it makes a really cute dispenser for the oyster shells.

So, again, when you're out and about, just think of how you could use these different things in your coop.

♪ We got some eggs.

Beautiful eggs from the girls.

It was cold last night, so I wanted to come down early and collect any eggs to make sure they hadn't frozen.

Frozen eggs are still okay to eat as long as they haven't cracked, but if they crack, then I usually just give them to the chickens.

But these look great.

I like to sew, so I actually made some curtains, and I found these cool rods that the curtains just clip on, so they're super easy to take off to wash.

But it doesn't have to be fancy.

You can just nail or staple up burlap bags or old feed bags, just really anything that's going to retain a little bit more of the heat in the boxes.

And I think some of the girls like a lot of privacy, too.

And I'm just gonna put some dried herbs in the nests.

They smell nice, they look pretty.

Think the chickens like them.

Help relax them.

It has some lavender and rose petals and chamomile in it.

I just do that every once in a while when the nests need refreshing.

So now we're ready for another batch of eggs.

If an egg is frozen, usually, it'll be heavier than you think that an egg should be, so you can tell it's frozen.

But as long as it hasn't cracked, I would just put it in the fridge and let it defrost, and it's just fine.

If the egg has cracked, there's a chance bacteria would get in, so those I either toss or feed to the chickens or feed to our dogs.

But just to be on the safe side, if they're cracked, don't eat them.

But as long as they haven't cracked, frozen eggs are fine.

♪ In the winter, scratch grains are a really good treat for your chickens because the whole grains and corn and things are hard for them to digest, and it helps create body heat as they are digesting them.

So you can buy commercial scratch grains, or you can make your own so easily just using a variety of seeds and nuts and grains.

So I've got sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, some dried cranberries, oats, split peas, and I'm actually going to layer them in a mason jar because it makes a really cute gift for your favorite chicken keeper or even somebody who just wants to feed the wild birds.

♪ What a fun day today was.

This is what winter in Maine is all about, but it's still getting dark pretty early, so I wanted to go out and get a quick ski in before the sun goes down.

Come back next time.

♪ ♪ ♪ [ Chickens clucking ] ♪ [ Keys clacking ] >> Log on to FreshEggsDaily.com to learn more about poultry, backyard farming techniques, recipes, or anything you may have seen in today's show.

♪ Closed captioning for "Welcome to My Farm" is made possible by Grubbly Farms -- food for healthy pets and planet.

Funding for this series has been provided in part by Manna Pro.

♪ >> To protecting them... >> ...helping them grow... >> ...and thrive.

[ Chickens clucking ] >> Treating them... >> ...as well as they treat us.

>> Manna Pro -- Nurturing life.

>> And Meyer Hatchery.

>> Meyer Hatchery offers more than 160 breeds of poultry and carries a full line of meats, supplies, gifts, and decor.

With nearly four decades of experience, the Meyer family is committed to supporting our customers through their entire poultry journey.

Learn more at MeyerHatchery.com.

♪