Spring? Maybe?
Posted by: TammyIt was like elixir for my soul. The smell of smoke, the first wisps of steam off my evaporation pan, the sound of sap boiling down, birds singing in the trees and the warm sun on my face. It’s maple sugaring season and I so desperately needed to be outside. This winter’s harsh and continuous snowfall in January have pushed my hardcore New England resolve to it’s limit.
You know you’ve reached your limit when mud season looks great! It’s pathetic and clearly a sign of my desperation that the cleared, muddy area around my sugarin’ woodstove gets me excited. I usually dread mud season but to see wet, brown ground, a bit of green moss and a few bugs emerging out of my wood piles amid the still “too high” piles of snow gives me hope that someday, it will all melt away.
This year’s sugaring season has had a slow start. We got some warm temps but the nights were too warm, too. 8 days of tapped trees yielded just barely 7 gallons of sap (about a quart of syrup if I’m lucky). But, I was working full-time dental hygiene these past 10 days (worked 8 out 10 days) so I’m hoping that the Lord was holding out the really good sap run for my regular work schedule which affords me the opportunity to boil sap regularly. The temperatures are definitely looking better this next week with days well above freezing and nights well below freezing. It warmed up enough today to get a good run going so that’s encouraging.
It’s hard not to think about last year’s sugaring season. I planted sugar snap peas and worked on a new stone-retained planting bed. I cleaned up old pea and bean tendrils off the vertical fencing. I raked and cleaned up leaves off the beds. I trimmed back the raspberry plants. I got to watch the rhubarb poking up through the sun-warmed soil. I laid on the lawn and soaked up the sun.
It won’t be the same this year. I AM taking joy in the tiny little seedlings in my cold frame. The snow has finally melted away from it and I can peak inside. I planted radishes, lettuces and romaine in the fall, hoping for an early winter harvest but my late start on the cold frame and the heavy snow fall left my little seeds hanging out in the ground. It seems that now, the warming sun and melted snow have given them hope and they’ve sprouted. They have given ME hope! Maybe, just maybe, spring will come become summer slams us.
- Tags: cold frame, maple sugaring, spring