EPISODE 445 MAPLE SYRUP TIME
alan skeoch
March 8, 2022
Above all else, March is a sweet time of year thanks to something beyond our
control.
Change ia in the air. I can smell it. Those Maple trees in the farm lane are providing
a needed distraction from human affairs. Will they still be here when we are gone?
We can but hope.
What a beautiful day! Despite troubles like the collapse of the greenhouse
due to this heavy snow….and the terror that is on all of our minds brought about
by one lunatic, Putin by name. Despite troubles, yesterday was a beautiful day
as the snow melted.
And the slow then fast …Drip, Drip, drip…drummed the sap pales as our maple trees gave
up some of their sweet nectar.
Andrew: “Dad where is all your maple syrup making eq uipment?”
“Planning to tap?”
“Seems right time.”
“Correct…warm days and cool nights in March.”
“Where are the sap pails?” Spigotts? Hand drill and bit? Boiling pans? Soft Ball thermometer?
“There are about 200 sap pails in the quonset barn but don’t take them.”
“Why not?”
“Lead soldered…lead poisoning….now illegal.”
“All your syrup kit no longer useful.?”
“Not quite all…search around…I have some aluminum sap pails…maybe a dozen or more…enough
to get a good load of sap.”
“How collected?”
“years ago I used milk cans…those big cans with rounded lids…cleaned them first of course.
I think you bought some new milk cans…use them.”
’Smell the air”
“Nothing like it…just before springtime.”
“Dad, I remember 40 years ago when we all got sap from Saunders bush over on
the fourth line…took the whole March school break.”
“That’s when we had Tara the Coonhound…she joined us.”
“And each night we did the boiling…great clouds of steam from the boiling pan
with a fire from wood gathered on the beach at Sunnyside…truckload of planks and
driftwood. Remember the picnic bench that floated in and the City Parks Crew
stopped you?”
“The picnic bench was all smashed up. They helped me get the bolts out…more
wood for the maple syrup fire.”
“Do you remember the colour of the syrup?”
“I think it was black.”
“Right…dark black.”
“The maple syrup in the store is light brown…how come yours was black?”
“Ashes from the fire…couldn’t stop the ashes…gave us a little extra carbon…did not kill us
as we are all alive 4o years later/“
“Do you still have those pictures of the old sap making days?”
“yes, you boys were about 8 and 10 years old back then.”
“How many years did we do it.”
“Two, Three…four?”
“Why did we stop?”
“TROUBLE…BIG TIME TROUBLE…AS YOU WILL SEE IN THE NEXT EPISODE”
Woody was my partner just as Tara used to be. He loves to ride beside me on the
ATV….he gets quite miffed if I forget to beckon him…”Get on here, Woody, we are
heading home.”
alan
NEXT EPISODE…GETTING MAPLE SAP 40 YEARS AGO