{"id":20702,"date":"2022-03-26T03:11:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-26T07:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=20702"},"modified":"2022-03-26T03:13:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-26T07:13:20","slug":"episode-557-mae-syrup-making-in-1970-alan-skeoch-and-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=20702","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 557 MA[;E SYRUP MAKING IN 1970 ALAN SKEOCH AND FAMILY"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
EPISODE 557   MAPLE SYRUP MAKING IN 1970<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 25, 2022<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
SOME of our fellow teaching friends drove or flew to exotic places on the March school break<\/div>\n
in the 1970\u2019s.  We had a better plan.  March Break was maple syrup time.  Simple to do.  I had a huge<\/div>\n
supply of sap pails and piles bought at farm auctions.  All I needed was a brace and<\/div>\n
bit.   Lorne Saunders said we could use his maple trees over on he Fourth Line<\/div>\n
of Erin Township.  Must be 500 trees available.  We only needed 20 or 30.  But we had to<\/div>\n
get the trees tapped on those special warm days and cold nights of the month of March.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u2018Our two boys were delighted.  Here Kevin found a weird fungus on one of sap<\/div>\n
running afternoons.  March is a wonderful month where it feels great to be alive<\/div>\n
after being cooped up in the house for winter.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong.  Sap tapping days can have big snowstorms.   Winter is still present.  But weakening.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
After drilling a gentle hole and tapping the pile in place, the sap usually begins to run right away.<\/div>\n
Make sure to drill the hole so it  slopes down gently\u2026.so sap can run.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
These old orange pails looked best. Like flowers in the forest.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Some days no sap would run because the weather was freezing.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
And it was easy to know when the sap gathering days were over.  The spears of wild garlic<\/div>\n
popped up all over the forest floor.  And flies began to cluster around the sap spiles.  The sap<\/div>\n
changed\u2026.like milk that has gone sour.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Our wonderful coonhound Tara enjoyed those sap collecting days as much as we did.  <\/div>\n
She stuck close to us which is strange for  a  coonhound because there were so many<\/div>\n
scents to follow.  I think she liked sap collecting as much as we did.  When the snow was thick on<\/div>\n
the ground I got the idea of harnessing her to the sleigh loaded with old milk cans full of<\/div>\n
sap.  That did not work well.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The sap collecting was sort of silly really.  We had to drive 45 miles to the farm where the trees were tapped.  <\/div>\n
I assume some of our friends thought we were a little tapped in the head.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
We parked the truck beside the the forest ,  loaded the sap and then drove all the way<\/div>\n
back to Port Credit for the boiling.  That\u2019s nearly 100 miles just to get 30 gallons of sap on<\/div>\n
good days.  None on bad days.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Previously I had gathered a good pile of driftwood from Sunnyside Beach in West Toronto.  My fuel. I needed<\/div>\n
lots because it took 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Sometimes the Fifth line froze solid with ice on those March afternoons.   Enough for Marjorie and Kevin to skate<\/div>\n
down the line.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Then our sap collecting days ended when some bastar parked beside the maple bush with<\/div>\n
with his 22 calibre rifle and shot holwa in our sap pails.   That was depressing.  Bu we got <\/div>\n
three good years of syrup making.  Joyful as you can see in Kevin\u2019s face.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
CAUTION:  Later we were told that all our maple syrup pails were dangerous.  Lead soldered<\/div>\n
bottoms.  Lead poisoning.   Never noticed that on those great days earlier.  Our maple<\/div>\n
syrup was black\u2026dark black.   Most good syrup is light brown.  Ours had lots of charcoal<\/div>\n
from the wood smoke and ashes .  No matter. Those were halcyon days.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
I bet dollars to doughnuts most readers wish they had been with us back then.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Seems our other son, Andrew,  remembers because he is collecting sap as I write.  And<\/div>\n
using modern aluminum pails.   <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 26, 2022<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 557   MAPLE SYRUP MAKING IN 1970 alan skeoch March 25, 2022 SOME of our fellow teaching friends drove or flew to exotic places on the March school break in the 1970\u2019s.  We had a better plan.  March Break was maple syrup time.  Simple to do.  I had a huge supply of sap pails […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}