The buckets hold little but bugs and a little water. The
last of the generous maples has stopped giving. Time to pull the taps, wash the
buckets, and store it away for next season.

We made 50 gallons of sweet amber colored maple syrup. That’s
about 2000 gallons of sap gathered, carried, carted and boiled; now resting in
five gallon containers. The last thing to do is reheat it to the perfect
temperature, bottle it up, and enjoy the sweet taste over the next year. Oh,
and clean all those buckets and containers and evaporator pans and taps and
store them for next season. Even with maple syrup selling for $60-80 a gallon,
it’s minimum wage work. And we don’t sell ours anyway, just share with friends
and use as our primary sweetener.

Another lesson from the sugar bush: when it’s over, it’s
over. Whether that’s a relationship, a season in nature or our lives, a job, a
stock market crash or boom, whatever. We need to recognize when it’s time to
pull the taps and move on to the next thing calling us. Livin’ with the rhythm,
I call it. Birds do it, bees do it, and even maple trees do it. Can we be as
smart as them and stop pushing the river, trying to squeeze out one more buck,
drop of oil, one more gas guzzling car, another widget? Seems like our economy
is telling us something. If we don’t change direction, we’ll keep ending up
where we’re headed. When it’s over, it’s over. Another lesson we can learn form
that wonderful 3.5 billion year old system that’s living right outside our
window. See you next year, maple sap.  Hello,
trout, turkeys and wildflowers!

Share