Maple Syrup Time

 It's maple syrup time in Michigan. When the days are what we consider warm but the nights still are cold the sap flows back up to feed the trees.  If a tree is particularly juicy it will seep out of the space where the branches meet the tree. Always in March but sometimes in late February.  

When our daughter moved into their house one spring they noticed squirrels laying on those branches and licking the dark spaces at the junctures.  

The next year she found a place that sold spigots and buckets and watched the squirrels. 

It tastes, straight from the tree, like water with a "what's that?" background.  I think you can taste the tree if you wait for it. The sap drips drip by drop into the bucket.  Somedays the bucket will be quite full, other days not so much.

Then you cook it down.  Those two pots in the background are used up and dead to the chore. The propane goes fast, the little stove wore out.  She's been doing this for years.  With the new open cook pot more will evaporate quicker.  You can see it's starting to change color as the sap boils down.  

It takes about forty gallons of sap to get one gallon of syrup. This is the real thing, no additives, preservatives, sugars, nothing but cooked down sap.  And better eating you won't find!