March 19th we gathered our first maple sap
We collected 6 x 5 gallon pails that day and we were off to making maple syrup. This was a first for us in many many years! The last Allan worked in the sugar bush was when he was about 15 years old, they made it for sale and tapped 1500 trees – that was a lot of trees! My parents made it when we lived on the farm – I would have been about 6 years old the last time we made it. We didn’t tap a huge amount of trees as we were only making if for our own use.
This year we tapped 60 trees and made 7 gallons of syrup. The boys and their families helped with the gathering and boiling down. Clinton did not have the pleasure of being with us when we bottled but he got to enjoy the other stuff with us. It is a lot of work but for those of us who like Maple Syrup – it is worth it – a labour of love you can call it.The second week of April was the end of our maple syrup making - the season ran a little longer but by this time we had all the syrup we needed. Project completed.
Like most projects we take on this one left us with lessons learned, a lot of good memories and great pictures. I have shared some of these with you below.
Bye for now,
Anne
