It's finally spring, and the sap is rising!
Yesterday our temperature hovered at near 60 until the rain moved in late afternoon. After school and lunch we all ran outside to play in the warm, windy weather (and the cold, gooey mud, and all the puddles left on the driveway by the melting snow), and the kids made a beeline for the maple Andy tapped last weekend. I was on twin duty, which meant I was busy running from one baby to the other, trying to keep them from running down the driveway to the road, falling into the remaining snow drifts, beating each other with snow shovels... that sort of thing. (This only worked for about 30 minutes until Pip tumbled into a particularly BIG puddle and literally soaked himself head to toe.) Katydid fussed with the bucket for a while, then ran back, yelling, "The sap's running! The sap's running!"
Alas, because I was so busy keeping track of the babies, I have no pictures. But I had no idea that maple sap is clear, like water. When I went to check the bucket (babies in tow), I thought at first that she must be mistaken, because it just looked like there was water in the bottom of the bucket, and some condensation around the tube. But the big kids all tasted it, and they proclaimed it sap. Gareth said it tasted a little like apple juice. I didn't have a chance to taste, but I felt the "water", and it was definitely sticky. Sap!
About five minutes after we came in, it started to rain -- hard -- then tapered off to a constant sprinkle, flung against the windows by a strong March gale out of the west. When Andy got home, the kids immediately crowded around him to tell him about the sap... and out into the rainy evening Andy went, to tap the rest of the trees.
This morning it's sunny and already in the lower 40's. (I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be our high for the day. Could the forecast be wrong, I wonder, or is it gluttony to wish for more 60's in March when you live in upstate New York?) We plan on boiling sap tomorrow in our backyard fireplace (I knew it had to be good for something.) And don't worry, if there are pictures to be taken, someone will be able to take them tomorrow!
(Andy has been reading the kids the book Sugaring Time, by Kathryn Lasky at bedtime. He says it's been more helpful in learning how to sugar than the how-to books we ordered -- listed in this post. The book, a Newberry Honor, is aimed at elementary/upper-elementary aged kids, and contains wonderful black and white photos along with a step-by-step description of the sugaring process.)
How exciting! If you can manage it please post pictures! What a fabulous memory for your kids!! It makes me think of the Little House in the Big Woods. It also brings to mind a HILARIOUS April Fools article NPR ran a year or so ago about exploding untapped Maple Trees. Have you heard it? It was so professionally done those of us from non-sugar Maple states believed it for a few minutes. They even had the sound of splintering trees. Be sure to tap those trees!
Posted by: Marjorie | March 23, 2007 at 08:50 AM
fun, fun, fun
Posted by: Jennifer | March 23, 2007 at 06:57 PM