winter wonder

"The wonderful thing about tapping trees is than it gives you a view into a world that would otherwise be hidden; the workings of a tree's anatomy." - Linda Wigington.

So, it begins. We have tapped the maple trees for the first time. We used the maple taps Emily's mother had gotten from Ed Crago. They had been sitting in the barn at the woods house since the eighties. They were very rusty. I soaked them in CLR and then brushed the inside with wire brush and then cleaned them on the grinder. I tapped the tree in the front yard which was to act as a kind of barometer of the sap run. It came out almost as soon as the bit cut through the bark. I rushed to finish cleaning a handful of taps and went out to tap some of the trees in the grove between the oil wells. We got a bucket or so in the first afternoon. W

e boiled it on the induction cooker outside. I managed to burn the first two batches despite being warned time and time again that you have to be constantly vigilant. Eventually we managed to make a batch. It tasted quite amazing. It was really a beautiful thing.