Tapping the Trees, Syrup Making Part 1....

Yesterday was all about going back to the Farm of 1000 Ways to Die, with Slam'er, for the first part of of a Maple Syrup Adventure! I've wanted to learn how this all works since I was five and read Little House In The Big Woods. It hasn't, it seems, changed that much since those days, which makes me happy.

The taps are called "Spiles" I kept forgetting the name and all I could remember this morning was "Snipe" which I knew was wrong. Put it in my list of questions and Slams set me right. She said Snipes are different and we'll go hunting them later this summer.

This tool never had a name that I knew. I do know if you take the hammer and hit IT while it is on the spile, the spile will be into the tree quite nicely with little fuss.

This would be the Sugar Shack, with Gators (remember them from Burr Gully? We stayed out of that misbegotten place this time, tho we did go look at it, and wonder how we'd ever...well, never mind, that was then)

I have no idea why we brought a chainsaw along to make syrup. My best guess is that these country people are simply not comfortable being too far away from CERTAIN DEATH.

Here on the drive out to the woods, let's just talk a moment about the whole Chicken Incident. I kind of like chickens and hoped we could go visit them and, you know, gather some eggs, like last time. Slam'er was obliging, and we did. The only thing, the chickens were ON their nests this time. "Go on", says, Slams, "just reach right on under and grab the eggs" Hello? Really? This has GOT to be a joke on the City Girl, thinks me. Sadly, no.

When she stopped laughing at me, she showed me how, just sort of reached in, and her chicken got up with a "Oh dear me, sorry, let me move over so you can get those" attitude. MY chicken stayed right where she was, glared at me like a crazed serial killer and started making noises like a Sci-fi monster straight out of a Dr Who episode (in fact I may go back and record this noise, they could use it) NOT clucking chicken noises, and pecked me half to death with her razor sharp beak. Never saw so much blood, but the surgeons believe the hand can be reattached and will in time be useful again.

Damm chickens. Ima going back there...

Anyway, back to the woods. First, you need to drill a hole in the tree, which is really cool because on a lot of them sap came GUSHING out. I don't think this hurts the tree, they don't seem to mind, you can see the scars from previous years all over the maples. Kyle Cassidy thought that the holes were made by shooting the trees with guns, which I have to admit, would have been fun and added an element of danger to the whole thing, but no. Just a regular little drill thing.


Here's what it looks like once it is in...

And with a bucket hung over it, for sap to drip into....


And all that's left is for someone to pop a lid onto the bucket. That would be my job.

Some trees can have more than one bucket. According to Slam'er, here's how you can tell:

"Trees must be at least 10" at DBH (Diameter at Breast Height...this is an actual term, I didn't make it up) to be tapped. When they are 16" DBH they can have 2 taps, 24" gets 3 taps and 30" gets 4 taps. We've never had a tree with 5 taps....yet. :)"

You have to be able to tell which trees are Maple's, just any old tree will not do. And of the Maples you need to be able to tell if the tree is going to be a good runner. Slam'er and Papa Slam'er have it down to an art form, they can tell by looking, and they can also tell you which particular tree is the best, remembering them from previous years.

I like that. And I like it that this really is the way it's been done for 100's of years. You go out in the woods with some buckets and spiles and tap 'em into the trees. There's a more modern method too, and we'll talk about that as well. It's the Total Leg Workout method of syrup making.

This is what it looks like, looking up into the Maple, to see if it's a good one. (Mostly, I just liked my Tree Picture and wanted to include it)

This is the more modern method, which they use on the Really Really Steep hills because too many people were dying, I mean slipping and sliding, down the Really Really Steep hills some of the trees were on. This was un-popular because you ended up not only losing your bucket of sap, but you'd also be wearing it by the time you got to the bottom.

The way it works is there are lines that start at the top of the Really Really Steep hill, and they go from tree to tree, with a tap at each tree, all flowing down to a large collecting bin at the bottom, so the sap doesn't have to be carried down in buckets by hand. Of course, someone has to climb on up the Really Really Steep hills, check to see if Evil Squirrels (all squirrels are evil, I learned. And deadly) have chewed thru, replacing the bits that were, and tap the trees, as they don't STAY tapped all year.

Hence the Total Leg Workout.

Plenty of workout opportunities in the woods. Here's me doing the upper body portion of the training. Had some self interest here too, since it would apparently make it safer to drive the gator over the gully if the bridge had been shoveled first.

One of the stories they told me yesterday was how in the spring, as the snow melted, the water from the upper pastures, and the hills, would come down and fill the gully, making a proper river of it. One of the most wonderful things I ever did see was looking up and SEEING the exactly moment this happened, as we were driving back. Within moments, the gully went from snow filled and empty to a raging river. Here, it's coming...

And here, it's a river. Magic.

It's all Magic. Woods Magic. Old Woods Magic. I loved being a part of it. And there's still gathering, and actually making the syrup. If you look very closely, in this picture Slam'er took for me, you can just see the drip of sap before it falls into the bucket. It drips, and drips, until the bucket is full. There are 730 taps out there in the woods, all dripping into their buckets, slowly filling.

It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.

But they gave me a cup to drink. It was like drinking Woods.

Or Magic.

Love and Maple,
Quiche MeDeadly