Wonderful

                                             About Maple Syrup

             Each year as the sun starts to warm the earth towards the end of March, Tom puts styles into about 25 Maple trees on the hill beside the house. Onto to these he hangs the metal sap buckets. If all goes  well over the next few weeks he collects approximately 200 litres of sap. We do two full long days of boiling outside over a makeshift hearth, utilizing every large pot we own, after lots of wood and many hours we have almost syrup. I then take the golden elixer into the house to "finish off" on the gas stove. Here I have more control over it not burning and do use a thermometer. Last year we made about 18 lt./ 4 1/2 gallons. We talk of erecting a small sugar shack behind the workshop, but so far it hasn't come to pass. 
              We save the scrub dead wood logs to use for fuel for boiling sap; so the process also helps us tidy the woods around the house. Each year the winter winds seem to uproot a number of softwood trees, if these are not big enough to be sawn into usable lumber; they get piled for sugaring off time.

The art of making maple syrup has been a North American phenomenon;  long before the first settlers arrived. Our early Native Americans boiled sap in hollowed out cooking logs by continually adding heated rocks. I feel tired after a day of boiling with our "primitive" equipment, I can't imagine how long their method took!

This maple hill just west of the house is where we gather our sap.
I am also fortunate in that my studio windows look out onto it.

Yes! When I say primitive..I mean primitive. These are photos
from last year 1998; which I finally found.

Once the sap starts to boil;  a wonderful sweet aroma starts to fill the air. As the day progresses the maple elixer thickens.