Rites of Spring

"Long before European settlers came along, maple sap was harvested and enjoyed by Indigenous Canadian populations, who tapped trees by cutting v-shaped patterns (or inserting thin wooden tubes) into the bark."

"They created syrup in a variety of ways: using freezing temperatures to separate the water from the sap or boiling the sap down in clay kettles over the fire."

"Eventually, European settlers learned these techniques from the Indigenous peoples, and maple syrup production began in their communities between 1700-1800 in Canada."

Canadian Living

Maple sap boils in pan on a wood fire in sugar bush, Madoc, Ontario, March 2020.  Peter Kuitenbrouwer

Vermont and New Hampshire pride themselves on the quality of their maple syrup, and rightfully so, the sweet, seasonally-derived treat is everyone's favourite table syrup to enhance breakfast pancakes, not to mention for use in baking and cooking to convey its very own special taste and fragrance to a multitude of dishes. But it is Canada that takes pride of place globally as the producer of 80 percent of the world's maple syrup market, and of that 80 percent, the province of Quebec proudly claims 90 percent production, though Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island also produce the liquid gold.

Boiling sap in a sugar bush, Madoc, Ont.. Janerae Causyn

It all begins when winter finally takes its leave. When the nights are still cold, below freezing, and the days are beginning to warm, there are longer daylight hours and the sun heats up the landscape. That's when the sap which had descended from deciduous trees to trees' roots for the duration of the winter, begins to return from the roots, making its way back up to infuse the tree with new life, and new foliage begins to send out its green haze. It is sugar maples that the sap is harvested from, though enterprising Erablieres have also produced limited amounts of syrup from birches.

With the sap -- the life-blood of the tree -- rising from the roots through the cambrium layer of the tree's bark, a steady drip of sap falls from spigots (called spiles) into a collection pail that has been installed under the spile. The sap runs steadily as it rises through the bark to reach the upper stories of the tree, and when the pails are full, they're taken away to be poured into large tanks where they will go on the boil until the syrup stage is achieved. The emptied pails are returned to their position on the tree trunk to be replenished anew, and the ritual is repeated.

Hauling sap through sugar bush. Tallulah Kuitenbrouwer

When the pan has been filled, it is time for the second stage of sugaring off, to boil the sap over a wood fire, kept stoked until the sap boils away to become maple syrup, the stuff of legend. It takes 30 or 40 litres of sap from 45 buckets hung from sugar maple trees to make one litre of syrup. Someone must always be in attendance to see to the fire and tend the sugaring off. It helps to love nature, to be immersed in it with snow remaining on the forest floor throughout the process from March through April.

It is a solitary occupation at this point, but a wonderful place to be marooned, for nature-lovers. The forest becomes alive. The bare canopy of deciduous bush allows the spring sun to enter the forest, lighting it spectacularly, enlivening it, warming the tree trunks and the understory, while birds fly about, some that have come down from the boreal forest and others that have reverse-migrated, returning north from their winter sojourns down south. 

And soon enough, red buds will be seen, looking high up on the maple crown.