Maple Syrup

I love my internship, I'm only 4 days into it but I'm pretty sure I will always feel this way. Mostly because I get to spend so much of my day outside. Even now as I sit at my computer shivering because I haven't warmed up yet I feel grateful for so much exposure to the wonders of Creation.

My first task that I undertook this week was hauling maple sap from the trees to the sugar shack. I made several trips with a bucket in each hand loaded with about 20 pounds of sap. I enjoyed the chance to exercise and to learn about the practice of maple sugaring. That was Monday.

Today I was able to taste the fruits of my labor after the first batch of syrup was poured. And it was DELICIOUS!! My boss Christa likes to tell the kids how we talk nicely to the trees when we are drilling them and how sometimes we like to thank them for what they produce. Today was one of those days when thanking was in order.

I wanted to post some information about sugaring, but really didn't feel comfortable with writing the information myself. So if you are interested you can check out The Sugaring Story.

At Stratford they use mostly traditional methods for sugaring, including "quiet" drilling, which means the use of a hand drill. The sugarbush is larger than ever this year, consisting of about 150 taps.

Take some time to read about Stratford Ecological Center, as it is a really neat place. The website needs updating, but they are working on it.