{"id":7701,"date":"2021-02-27T12:48:49","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T17:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7701"},"modified":"2021-02-27T12:49:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T17:49:37","slug":"episode-266-maple-syrup-time-part-two-good-times-and-prolems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7701","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 266 MAPLE SYRUP TIME PART TWO: GOOD TIMES AND PROLEMS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 266    MAPLE SYRUP TIME :  PART TWO:   GOOD TIMES AND PROBLEMS<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Feb 2021<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Just having something constructive to do on March week ends was exhilarating.  We were all out<\/div>\n
and about\u2026whole family and Tara the Coonhound.   The maple trees were at work\u2026drip, drip, drip\u2026<\/div>\n
pails filling but no overflows because I was able to get to the bush on week days just as dusk<\/div>\n
was settling.  Alone on weekdays. Communicating with nature.  Lugging the milk cans of sap<\/div>\n
from the bush to my truck.  No easy task as 10 to 15 gallons of sap was heavy going. Especially as <\/div>\n
the snow melted and the sleigh system was useless.<\/div>\n
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Lugging the sap back to Mississauga where our outdoor boiling side was located.  Our city <\/div>\n
lot is 400 feet deep with Mary Fix Creek meandering along the eastern edge.  At one time this<\/div>\n
area was held by the Mississauga First Nations before they moved (or were forced to move) to<\/div>\n
the New Credit reserve near Brantford.  Lots of space here for converting sap to syrup.<\/div>\n
Or so we thought.<\/div>\n

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

<\/div>\n
THE FINISHING SITE:  SAP TO SYRUP<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The sap boiling system.<\/div>\n
1) Set up the sap pan high over the fire pit.<\/div>\n
2) Find a large supply of firewood.<\/div>\n
3) Get a fire going <\/div>\n
4) Pour in the sap <\/div>\n
5) Place a nice comfortable chair near the fire for warmth<\/div>\n
6) Keep a close eye lest too much evaporation occur and<\/div>\n
the sap turns into burnt toffee at the bottom of the pan.<\/div>\n
7) Check regularly with the Maple Syrup thermometer\u2026.<\/div>\n
8) Clean the Crown sealers.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Finding a large source of free firewood was not difficult.  Each spring back in the<\/div>\n
1970\u2019s huge piles of lumber would float down the Humber River, out into Lake Ontario<\/div>\n
then back to Sunnyside Beach where the lumber was eventually cleared by<\/div>\n
the Toronto City Parks people.  Where this bonanza originated I never knew   I got to the<\/div>\n
beach before the city work crews.   Loaded the truck with 2 x 6 and 2 x 4 and even 2 x 12 planks<\/div>\n
\u2026some with nails but most of them nail free.  Piles of them.  Also 4 x4 and 6 x 6 timbers\u2026and lumps of<\/div>\n
maple, oak and pine that had been dumped upriver somewhere.  Enough lumber came down<\/div>\n
the Humber each spring to boil my sap to syrup. Smoky of course because water soaked<\/div>\n
wood churns out one hell of a lot of water vapour.   Which led to a problem as neighbourly<\/div>\n
tolerance of my fire pit led to problems.  For the first year or two there was no problem until<\/div>\n
a neighbour with severe Athsma moved in two lots north of us.  As it turned out the smoke<\/div>\n
from my fire angled right to their back door.  I never noticed.  Smoke is smoke. Here now,<\/div>\n
gone tomorrow.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
I loved sitting beside my fire pit on those cool March evenings\u2026right up to 11pm. and<\/div>\n
bed time.  Safe fire, lots of space free of flammable materials.  I could leave the fire<\/div>\n
burning as long as the supply of sap was ready to refill the pan..<\/div>\n

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Neighbours thought we were a bit eccentric but some of them dropped around to see the sap<\/div>\n
boiling.  Our kids and other kids liked to taste the stuff.  Of course some kids and adults were a<\/div>\n
little leery.<\/div>\n

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Even Tara, our coonhound, had a fancy for maple sap.<\/div>\n

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About the third year we tapped the maple trees we made an alarming discovery.  Most of our sap pails were<\/div>\n
illegal.  not ever to be used for sap again.   Why?  Because they were put together with lead solder.  Lead is<\/div>\n
a poison.  POISON!<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Look closely at the sap pails above. Most are old lead soldered pails.  A few are modern aluminum sap<\/div>\n
pails.  The safe kind.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Since we had consumed most of our home made syrup it would be best to tell no one\u2026the way I<\/div>\n
figured.   I have one big bottle of our maple syrup at the farm in the fruit cellar.  Told no one.<\/div>\n
Why keep it?   I have no idea except it reminds me of those grand March maple sap days.<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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“Dad, do the sap and syrup days have to end?”<\/div>\n

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I wonder if there is some way to slow down the process of human growth so we could keep the boys as children.<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cWell, boys there are some good reasons we stopped boiling sap into syrup on cool<\/div>\n
March days.  Some of the reasons make sense.  Some of the reasons made no sense at all.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
REASONS WHY OUR SAP TO SYRUP PRJECT ENDED.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
1) Those lead soldered sap pails were unsafe.  We could not give the sap away to friends.<\/div>\n
2) The neighbours had serious athsma and our smoke blew directly into their house.<\/div>\n
(They mentioned this nicely)<\/div>\n
3) The labour made no sense.  Cheaper to buy maple syrup, far cheaper.<\/div>\n
4) The City Parks crew got the firewood faster than I could\u2026and the supply<\/div>\n
began to dry up anyway.<\/div>\n
5) The last season some low life creep parked his truck beside our sap trees <\/div>\n
\u2026cradled his rifle and shot holes in our sap pails just to watch the sap drain out.<\/div>\n
6) The boys, Kevin and Andrew, grew older\u2026less interested.  Amazing how children grow up<\/div>\n
so fast.   When they are little kids their aging seems slow and then, in the twinkling of<\/div>\n
an eye, they are adults.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
7) And finally, our Coonhound Tara got pregnant and had 11 puppies.  Suddenly no one<\/div>\n
wanted to go to he sugar bush with me any more\u2026including Tara.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

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

<\/div>\n
\u201cDad, suddenly it\u2019s springtime.”<\/div>\n

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

<\/div>\n
\u201cAlan, why don\u2019t we make apple cider from all the windfalls in the orchard each fall?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGood idea, no one will ever know those apples were wormy.”<\/div>\n

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

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\u201cMarjorie and Alan, I have news for you.  I am pregnant and will not be running through<\/div>\n
the sugar bush this month.\u201d  (said Tara)<\/div>\n

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

<\/div>\n
NEXT STORY:   HOW TO GET A COONHOUND PREGNANT\u2026<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Feb. 2021<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 266    MAPLE SYRUP TIME :  PART TWO:   GOOD TIMES AND PROBLEMS alan skeoch Feb 2021 Just having something constructive to do on March week ends was exhilarating.  We were all out and about\u2026whole family and Tara the Coonhound.   The maple trees were at work\u2026drip, drip, drip\u2026 pails filling but no overflows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7701","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}