Maple Syrup Season

Dear Diary,

I am starting to see the sap buckets on the trees around here. Maple syrup season is upon us. With the warm temperatures on Wednesday the sap must be really running. It must be in the high 40'sF during the day and cold at night for a good run. Many have gone to the new methods of tubing running from tree to tree but some still gather it the old way, like this.

Northern New England has three parts to spring...syrup season, mud season and black fly season. Only the first part is enjoyable. It seems as if I see the buckets a bit earlier every year. March is normally syrup season.

Soon, the sap houses will be up and running, boiling down the sap to make the syrup. It takes a lot of sap to make just a small bit of syrup. The process goes on 24/7 during the season but it is so worth it in the end. Pure maple syrup is the best. The sugar Maple trees treated us to glorious red foliage in the fall and now they will delight us with golden syrup for our pancakes!