Maple Syrup Making: Part 1

Yesterday I walked out the door and it was spring. The sun was shining, and I could feel the thick warmth from its rays. Spring means maple syrup season has come and gone. We (mostly Dad) make maple syrup from the broad leaf maple trees that dot the valley floor. Unlike the typical sugar maple, these trees give sap that makes a thinner syrup, though it still has the distinctive, natural maple taste. 

When the weather yields cold frosty nights and warm days, Dad starts gathering taps, hoses, buckets, and a sled to begin tapping trees. 

The fog hung low, clinging to the bare fingers of trees. The slushy scraping of the sled, the crunch of snowshoes, and the swish of snow pants are the only sounds aside from the dripping of the trees.

Runny noses and cold fingers accompany us as we meander from tree to tree, drilling a very small hole on the south side of the tree. After the hole is drilled, we gently hammer a reusable plastic tap into the tree that snakes into a bucket wedged safely at the base of the maple. 

The plastic taps we use do less damage than both the bigger white taps, and the hand whittled wooden taps we have used in the past. 

After a couple hours and about two hundred trees, we trudged home with an empty sled and tired legs and hands. We have a sense of accomplishment in knowing that we have finished tapping the trees…but in reality, the work has just begun.