It Ain't Easy Being Green (with apologies to Kermit)

Life in the Upper Pennisula of Michigan is not for the weak of heart.....or roots. This Alllium giganteum last Friday was basking in 70 degree sunny weather. While the weather here is akin to a wild child on a see-saw, we did have the luxury of our abundance of snow this year slowly soaking into the ground. The temps have been vassilating between WoW! it's really spring & how much more of this eternal damnation must I endure. The ground was becoming very dry, however our local weather hero said "Fear ye not proud Yoopers (that's our colloquial handle, en masse), There is not but a 10% chance of a snowstorm to besige us this late in the spring. AMEN".

Apparent-LY, Heiki Lunta, our Snow God in residence became a little irate. We were nailed with over 10" of the sloppy white stuff a week later.

Sugar What?

Sugarbush! A stand of maple trees, which produces the most delicious sweet treat of all....natural indigenous sap. In this first photo, the C.E.O. and I are heading to cut some more wood for the fire to stoke the boiler (I love my ears scratched...but not as much as having my picture taken).

The sap starts to run when the temperatures warm up in the early spring. It is gathered in buckets fed from sap lines from the trees. The fire in the box below heats up the clear sap and begins the long process of boiling off the excess water in the sap.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

This boiling takes hours, and it's only necessary to check in occasionally to make sure there is enough wood in the stove bottom.

Maple Syrup, Maple Syrup,

On your pickles or on your turnips.

Not so good for polishing stirrups,

All the world loves maple syrup!

As the sap thickens, it becomes crucial you keep very close watch or the whole pan will burn (not a particularly happy sight, and much cursing and scrubbing is needed). As the liquid reaches the perfect consistency, it is drawn off and can be further reduced indoors and canned or bottled. As long as there is a good seal (glass canning jars preferred), the maple syrup will last indefinitely, however, there is a better chance of hell freezing over than having any millenial syrup.

This whole process of tapping trees, gathering wood, stoking the fire, preparring the syrup is not done only by the C.E.O. It is a total family commitment to producing something more than a sweet treat for a long tooth. The Sugarbush is on Grandpa's land and all of the siblings join to carry on what they experienced in their childhood, carry on tradition. It does take a fair amount of sap to produce one bottle of syrup....but with all the saps coming together a lot of work can get done.