March 5, 2021
Sugaring season starts as soon as the days venture above freezing and it ends roughly 6 weeks later. The sap runs during those 6 weeks in weather dependent fits and starts. If its a warm day in the 50s, the sap will run hard and our buckets will overflow, and then there are days that never thaw, or nights that never freeze, and the taps run dry. It's a mixed blessing when the sap stops in between runs, as it gives us a chance to catch up and boil what we've already collected, but even though we are grateful for the brief reprieve, we know that the seasonal clock is ticking - a season which seems to get a little bit shorter every year as it is.
The “first run” of the season is usually light amber with a sweet delicate flavor, and as the weeks go by the sap gets a little darker and the syrup takes on a more robust flavor. The sugaring season ends abruptly when the trees start to bud and the sap begins to smell like an old pair of socks left in the bottom of somebody's gym locker. This year, our first run is very sweet, and has a nice crisp maple flavor- but the color is remarkably dark for a first run. It leaves me wondering if the trees are still stressed from last summers drought.
Maple Sugaring is a labor of love, or perhaps more accurately, a labor of joy. It takes about 40 gallons of sap, boiled down on our wood-fired evaporator, to make a gallon of syrup. That's a lot of boiling, a lot of work, and a lot of time, but it's also our celebration of the beginning of Spring, and there's no place we'd rather be. You all are free to think what you may, but I don't need a prognosticating groundhog, that may or may not be afraid of his own shadow, to tell me Spring is here and that it's time to get outside!
My Grandfather planted our sugar maples over a 100 years ago, and I imagine he would be very pleased with how his saplings have turned into such majestic trees. I can't think of any better way to show my gratitude for his gift to me than to use those trees in exactly the way he intended.
There is a Greek Proverb that states “Soceity grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in" and to that I'd like to add " or whose sweetness they shall never taste"...