(From older PlaceWorks blog)

And around here, when the sap starts running, it is time to hang some buckets and clean out the evaporator!

For those of you not from “around here,” I’ll explain that boiling the sap of a maple tree, usually a rock or sugar maple, eventually yields maple syrup, the thick, sweet substance that we like to eat on pancakes – or on any number of other things for that matter. (About forty gallons of sap yields one gallon of syrup!) Maple sap flows best in the spring of the year when the temperature falls below freezing at night, then warms up during the day. All kinds of things can affect this flow. The amount of rain we got the previous fall, spring too cold or too warm. A slight breeze can shut down a good run on the nicest day. Making maple syrup is the kind of practice that generates a heightened awareness of the weather; making hay in summer is another such practice. (More on making hay when the time comes.)

In any case, tapping trees, hauling sap, throwing firewood into the evaporator – often late into the night – is something of a ritual for many in our part of the country. And it happens at a time of year when, to be honest, there’s not all that much else to do. The winter snows are receding (ski season winding down), the streams are too full for good fishing (even though it’s legal April 1), and cabin fever is setting up a pulsing ennui.

With reference to an earlier post, Amy Trubek in her book “A Taste of Place” apparently talks about the terroir of maple syrup, a concept that, even though I spend part of each year up to my elbows in the stuff, had not occurred to me. I had always assumed that Maine maple syrup tasted about the same as West Virginia maple syrup – but that may not be the case. For that matter, my maple syrup may have qualities (color, taste, weight) that distinguish it from my neighbor’s, whose sugarbush is a little higher up with a more westerly exposure. I can see that there will have to be a lot more taste testing in my future to determine the “placeness” of maple syrup!