Boiling Sap

Maybe the most sure -fire harbinger of spring is the realization that the maples are breaking dormancy in preparation for budding.. the sap is running!

Now, being basically a southern boy, I always looked for spring in different ways: pruning apple trees, listening for peepers, paddling streams (normally too low to paddle most of the year) fresh with spring-rain and snow melt.. increased talk of planting 'taters and onions, being out without a gazillion layers of clothing ...

All those things are still big parts of my life, and I look forward to each and every one of those events... they happen like clockwork, every year.. at least in the way I've chosen to live my life.

But as we all grew and spread to different parts of the country, my brothers and sister adopted many of the practices of their new surroundings.

One of my brothers moved north... WAAY north.... and make no mistake, it's definitely not the south!

Many of the customs and traditions of being close to the land are very solid and natural.. good stewardship of the land is a strong northern ethic. But one of the things he naturally began was tapping his grove of Sugar Maples to make syrup... "huh? he's doing what?" which was my first reaction about 20 years ago....

But the magnificent Christmas gifts of homemade syrup made their presence known and we looked forward to them every year... and every year hence.

As I grew older and closer to the earth, the idea of making syrup, a thousands -of-years-old skill, started to look like the most natural and logical thing to do... and last year, I fumbled around and managed to produce enough sap for abut a cup of questionable-quality , but sweet, syrup... which I might add, was immediately devoured.

This year, I have been determined to step up my game just a bit.

Now my brother, he's gone all high tech... with his trees tapped and piped straight into his corn-crib-converted-into-a boiling-room...

I am not nearly as sophisticated...

Sap runs on its own time.

When I was a child, in my imagination, I used to view springtime sap boiling as something that must be an exciting time... I mean it's directly associated with all those sources of childhood excitement.. a wood fire, a barn, SNOW, and sweet stuff to eat... what's not to be excited about???

Even as an "adult" I have still been known to view gathering and boiling sap as a time of great anticipation and lots of doings...

Reality, however, is very different... it is much more mellow, more balanced, more in-tune with earthy doings. I have come to realize that , as with gathering sap, there is little I can do can make it boil down faster... natural laws are in charge. The best thing I can do is find a good book and settle in to feed the fire , and maybe, when no one is looking, catch a nap...

.. and it just may be that this is what it means to live in sync with the world... accepting the zen-like concept of everything in its time.. rest when it's time to rest, (re)store energy for the time of growing, and in turn, work when the time is right to work.

... and to be content to let sap run... and, in it's time, to let sap boil.

It sure is sweet...