Maple Syrup

Maple Shanty in Full Swing — Maple Syrup

View of the Shanty in full swing, with the steam rolling and a full moon!

Tapping the Sugar Bush!!!

March 25, 2025

🍁❤️🍁 What could be more Canadian, than making Maple Syrup!!! 🍁❤️🍁

And I cheerfully and luckily get to be part of it!! This is my most favourite place in the world and I get to be there with the most amazing person I know!!! My wonderful Man, who is an 8th generation Sugar Maker on their family homestead that has been in operation since 1802. The history behind this is so impressive and they happily share this information to all who ask.

What a fantastic way to start the new year off, by spending the first few months out in the woods, watching the transition of the season from heavily snow-covered grounds, all the way to seeing the buds appear on the trees. The birds' calls changing from winter to summer. The Chickadees going deeper into the bush away from the impending summer's heat, as the owls and Piliated woodpeckers come out looking for mates. Canadian geese flying home over head as we work on the pipelines. Landing for a short stay in the closest rivers to the farm until morning when they head further North. The wonderful aromas of the changing forest that surrounds us.

At first, when we throw on our snowshoes and begin the long and time-consuming process of tapping the hard maples, we get the smell of snow and trees, with a bit of crisp air still lingering, especially at dusk, as we make our way back to the camp. Then once the snow begins to melt, and we are now out fixing the leaks in the lines, we are mesmerized by the strong scents of decaying foliage and other ground cover, the damp smell rising up as we walk through it, just that beautiful aroma of a forest coming back to life. It's truly other worldly, making one feel like there is nothing beyond the trees. It's romantic, whimsical, old, and you can feel the lives that were there before us, working with us, as we follow in their footsteps. It is a beautiful feeling of life carrying on and moving forward.

Then at night we start to boil. The smell is incredible. The sap boiling down to syrup and the delicious aroma it sends out as it comes off the pan filling up the entire shanty. It's a bustle of activity, paying close attention to every step as to not go beyond syrup. Outside, the smell of nighttime forest, and the steam coming out of the shanty, mixes into the most beautiful, fresh, alive, delicious fragrance that would be wonderful if it too could be bottled up.

Once the sap has come to an end, we go back out to do the fun, yet dirty, process of clean the lines. Making any necessary changes that needed attention that we couldn't give it during the sap collection. It's fun, as the weather is now just gorgeous, but it too is a very long process. The shanty is then cleaned up and put to bed for another season. We'll be back out once more in late fall, just before snow, to make sure we get any lines cleared before winter truly hits so that it is easier for us to tap come syrup season again. But until that time, the forest replenishes herself and rests silently until we come back to happily work with her again, when she is just as delighted and eager to see us as we are her!

I like to hug the big old trees and wonder what life was like when they were just young, what they must have seen in their 300+ years here. These trees are so impressive, and even after all this time, still so full of life. They truly are remarkable! Nature is amazing!

Inside the Shanty!!

...the smell is incredible...

I might be a bit biased, but this is the best Maple Syrup in the world!

Pumping the sap up from the tank out back.