Wintergreen Wonderment

The snow has gone revealing all of the wonderful year-round ground cover.

A Lesson In Procrastination

OK.  Procrastination may not be exactly the correct word.  We do get busy during some times of the year.  Often on this MooseBoots path, I need to chose one activity over another.  Last Fall, I focused on foraging to the exclusion of finishing the yard clean-up before Winter.  Or, was I distracted by the home repairs that needed to get done.

Regardless, today, I planned to boil some sap into syrup.  The season has been very slow in coming.  It looked right, then it got cold again, then it got too warm for sap to flow, then ....

I dumped all of the buckets into the barrel this morning and was thrilled to have amassed 24 gallons of sap.  I have enough to boil down into 0.5 gallons (2 liters) or so.

Of course, there were other things to do, too.  Gather kids, pick up scraps from a local restaurant, get some feed for the rabbits, etc.  By the time all of that was done, it was 13:00 and I still had not gathered any wood for the boil.  I also realized that the fire pit was full of scrap wood, snow, and ice.
I recruited Little Fire Faery to build a fire in the pit to clear it.  I spent a few hours scouring the woods for dead wood for the boil.  Then, it was time to take a break and eat a late lunch.  While we were just starting, we got a visit from my Mom and Niece, which is a rare treat.  We sat and talked for a while, until they had to leave.

Even though there is not much to boil, it was too late to start at 17:00.  Of course, the fire pit was still not clear enough.  So, I spent a little while feeding more scrap wood into the pit to clear it.  I reassembled the brick wind break that surrounds the pans.

So, here I sit at 18:30.  We are ready for our first boil sometime this week.

In spite of the fact that the way we boil is a lot of hard work, I am so grateful for the gifts Nature gives.  I cherish the time spent in gathering food and supplies to sustain my family ... the honest direct results of effort expended ... healthy food, warm fires, the serenity of knowing that I am a part of the incredible natural world that so many of us miss because we do not stop to look for it.

Now, my only concern, on this MooseBoots journey, is getting the sap boiled before it is forecast to hit near 60 F on Friday.  I certainly hope that that will not be the end of the season.  

Although, I am very eager to get out fishing, hunting, gathering ... foraging!

Alarming Events - A Real Wake Up Call

I awoke to the cardinals singing.  Perhaps, they knew I would be tapping trees today, and were beckoning me to rise and get moving.  Or, they were singing with pure bliss that Spring is here after a long, snowy Winter.

Other thoughts filled my head.  I was thinking about the class about backyard maple sugaring that we plan to offer this year.  More precisely, I was considering how to help people find maples when it is just time to tap.  I have been asked many times, but wanted to find a way to show it rather than just describe it.  Lying on the bed, I pulled the curtains aside to look at the sky.  This perfect descriptive view greeted me.

The tree on the left is a maple.  The one on the right is an oak.  Just looking at the photo as is, we can see some of the difference.  Closer inspection of a real tree, not a photo taken with a phone, will yield others.:

• Maple branch and twig ends are slender.  Oaks twig ends flare out.
• Maple branches gracefully sweep toward the sky.  Oak branches twist and bend with each fork.
• Maples will shed all of their leaves in the fall.  Oaks will often hold some of the dry leaves.
• Maple twigs and leaf buds are arranged in an opposite configuration.  Oaks prefer to be alternate.

 

• Maple sap will start flowing about a month before that of the oaks.  Check the tips of the twigs for signs of life.  Early in the season the buds will be small on the maple trees, but they will be alive.  In fact, the buds will be fully developed, full size and obvious, at the end of the sugaring season.  My trees are Red Maples and when the sap starts to flow the tips of the twigs turn red instead of the gray the showed through the Winter.
• Maples will drop maple leaves.  Oaks drop oak leaves and acorns.  If the ground is not too snowy, check the base of the tree to see what is there.  Obviously, this will work better if there is only one  type of tree in the area or if the tree is standing alone.
• Maples, when tapped this time of year, will produce sap.  Oaks will not (see bullet above about sap flow).  Note, it is OK to make mistakes, because that is how we learn (sometimes we need to learn this lesson two years in a row).
• If you are not in a hurry, you can wait for the Summer and make note of you maples for next year.

Yes, the cycle of the year has taken us back to sugaring season!  With each passing year, this MooseBoots learning feels more and more right.  I am truly blessed.

 

 

 

 

SIDE NOTES:

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