Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

Colonial housewives learned to use maple syrup, adapting recipes from their home countries; Menominee Native Americans boiled wild grasses and syrup to make a stew; the Ojibwe Native Americans participated in sap collecting “camps,” where, after the sap was boiled into syrup, it was packaged into “mokoks,” (vessels or packages neatly made of birch-bark) and buried for later use. While we don’t have sap camp, or boil our syrup into grass stew, gathering sap is a yearly tradition at Farm. At the waning of winter—the height of cabin fever—sapping begins; the time of year when Farmers are called to hike though knee deep (sometimes thigh high) snow with wood drill, bits, taps and collecting buckets in hands to set up shop. But sapping doesn’t mean just checking buckets, gathering sap and boiling, it also means watching the weather--a sure sign for a good sapping season is the warm days and still cool temperatures at night. The first payoff of sap season is the delivery of th...

I heart the Friend of the Farmer blog! And I really enjoyed this blog about maple sap/syrup. It explained maple sap season in a way which I have not. I mentioned it in two previous posts: here and here . Reading his blog made me aware that I never posted any sapping pictures, so I thought I would share some now. (This is really my lame attempt to blog again after my absense lately). Mas luego! (Right): Amos checking out the boiling vats. (Below): Double bucketed tree. (Below): The boiling vats where the sap becomes syrup.

We are finally begining to (sort of) see spring around here. It has been (encourageably) been in the 40s during the days, though still going down to freezing again at night--it's what is called "sap weather" around here. Many Farmers have worked hard, tapping hundreds of trees for sap to make into maple syrup (as I mentioned in a previous blog). And as it is getting warmer and warmer and more spring-like, th weather will brings an end to the sap collecting. (For the sap to run from the trees the weather has to be warm during the day, but cold at night--fun fact for the day!) Here at the Farm all the sap gets boiled in these huge vats, which are brought to boiling by this really hot wood fire. The sap starts in one tank and as it gets hot and thickens it travels from vat to vat, and after getting it's brains boiled out it becomes maple syrup; it is a really cool process to watch. There is a Farm tradition of going out and having a hot cup of "sap tea;" hot...

Ok. So, maybe the air down by the dairy yard isn't that sweet, especially as you walk up the hill towards the pigs, but there is a sweet smell in the air all around Main House. The end of February/beginning of March means two things at the Farm. 1. The Farm Winter Olympics (which unlike the world olympics, is a yearly event here). For more on this event, please see my last entry . And 2. Maple syrup time! Reason #2 is why the air smells so sweet. The team that takes care of the forestry and grounds around the Farm began tapping trees a week or two ago and has already begun collecting the fruits of their labor. And today I enjoyed some of said fruits. I stopped by the Sugar Shack--where the sap is being boiled in various vats of various consistencies; which in the end turn out our DELICIOUS maple syrup--to check on the progress of our sap/syrup, but also for a cup of our famous Farm sap tea. Sap tea is basically hot sap--which is not quite syrup yet--which is then mixed with F...