Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer
We’ve been tapping maples this past week; installing mainlines, fixing harnesses or fitting lids. The drilling, the tap, tap, tapping of spiles into maples, the plonk, plonk, plonk of each drop falling into the antique bucket, one after another, outdoors in the freezing blue air under an azure sky.
While most people scurry from one building to another faces swathed in cover, in the greater world outside, we work shoulder to shoulder with our friends and family, each one busy with a task, moving with purpose from tree to tree, one grove to the next, across the ice polished snowbanks.
We break when we get hungry and move into the sugarhouse where we deep fry potatoes in tallow, dig fresh sauerkraut out of 150 year year old crocks, brown sausages in copper pans with chopped onions and pickled peppers, everyone eating from the same common platters, digging into handmade mustard or sprinkling fire cider on the crispy fries as they glisten on sheets of butcher paper.
This is what we’ve given up for modernism; our connection to the seasons, to the bounty of Nature herself, to honest labor, and ancient traditions, to communal meals and honest connections with informative conversation and well earned nourishment, to truth, purpose and more importantly, to meaning.
The first lesson I try and pass on to each person who joins in with us is to pay close attention to each tree, to look at it as a living organism either in full health or decline. To examine its bark and branches, to look for damage or sickness, to determine if it is one to tap for its sweet sap or to bypass for its journey back into the carbon from where it came.
The American organism, that Nation, dream, ideal- whatever it was- is dying. Anyone can see that if they only look. All of the sweet rewards that we’ve reaped from it are memories now and there is nothing that lies ahead but the slow dissolution of matter and its absorption back into the ether.
Moving on is what is now required. It is time to start forming new communities built on resilience and connection between each other. To stop participating in it as if it were still the beautiful organism it once was and allow it to go on its way, to provide a new soil for a future that has yet to manifest itself, but most certainly will in one form or another.
This is what we can do- to focus on the word by word, swing by swing, step by step construction of a future that will nourish and provide for us if we simply do the work required and not shirk from our responsibility to be a part of that structure.
Time to head back out and keep tapping.
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For the first time since I was a kid, I am collecting sap and cooking it down into syrup. I am truly enjoying myself and I get great pleasure seeing the bottles of deep amber gold on the shelf. What wonderful gifts they’ll make for friends and family. I’m using a turkey boiler on propane which is rather pricey-$23 worth of propane gives me about 3-18 oz bottles. This summer I’ll build a sugar shack and burn wood. That’s one of the very cool things about being a farmer-albeit a half-assed one-there is always something to do.
Oh, about the country circling the drain? I’m having fun and providing for my family so screw it anyway.
FAR better to be a half-assed farmer providing not only great memories but also substantial things as well. The alternative is being a consumer of things… You made the better decisions.
Thank you, Brian. It also sets a good example for my children and grands.
My neighbor (a mile or so away by gravel) is collecting sap and cooking it down over a brick oven outdoors. Is fascinating and I may give it a try next spring.
She started collecting in late Janurary here in Missouri.
The day can never be relived except in the memories. The past seems to be grand mostly remembering that which impressed our minds at the time. It could be a conversation, the enormity of a room, decorations and even smells.
We hold fast those memories because they are personal, some shared with others in a communal activity like those in the article. But the day is over so we move forward, relishing the day past perhaps hoping to hold it a little longer. If we are the type of people who enjoy sharing these days, then those we share them with will have their recollections of this day and yearn for a repeat, Even in the midst of the turmoil we have around us, today, there will be a small bright island of a memory for someone we are sharing it with. A smell, something said, an action taken, a moment in time. While its nice to ponder days past its also better to live in the moment too, imo.
Wise words Farmer. One can always and should look back to times past. However, one can not go back to times past. One must live in the now, It is what It is, make the most of what one has and be happy with it. I like you have learned to embrace stoicism and as one of my cousins, an infantry officer says, “Embrace the Suck”.
So I comment on your comment in Robert’s Post, and as soon as I get back to the main menu it’s Deja Vue all over again. So I’ll double down.
HSF; not only was that an absolute pleasure to read over my morning cuppa, but now my stomach is growling over your vivid description of the wonderous menu, and its setting. I practically never get hungry this early. What a dangerous gift you have, Sir. 🙂
Only now my stomach is starting to get pushy, lol.
I’m just tapping right now, the sweet stuff comes later.
Hear, hear.
Great post HSF!
I just pulled my taps today after 2 weeks of tapping here in western Iowa. Night time temperatures are staying above freezing for the next few days and production has almost ceased.
Thanks for making this available as both a general post and a comment on my article.
Nice. We’ll either re-create those connected communities, or our kids will be writing about them in the future saying. “remember when we…..”, or, “I wish I had been born into an earlier time”.
Who the fuck thought a big melting pot of different animals was a good idea?
HSF, how high are the spiles on the trees?
Coming from someone who has tasted the delicious fruits from your labors, not only maple syrup but also your writings, I can only say you have been gifted by God and an inspiration to me. You have an amazing mind and life. Reading your posts helps remind me there are still fine, decent people out there who, like myself, just want to be at peace with Nature. It’s an idyllic life, for sure, and one worth living.
Growing up in Texas, I worked on hog farms, and, later, packing plants; watched pigs (and horses and cattle) go from birth to death — from the rooter to the tooter, we’d say — and participated in all the steps of their lives, as I fed (slopped, let’s get the terms right) them, vaccinated them, sorted them, put down the sick ones and herded the healthy ones towards their inevitable dooms. Of course the entire farms smelled like pig shit and sweet grain from the silos nearby, a strange melange that when combined with the chaff from the swaying fields of hay which were ubiquitous made it oddly bearable. What I remember most were the times all the work was done and we could all just sit on hay bales, talking about nothing at all, feeling entirely at ease with the Earth and all its vibrancy. No TV, no radio, no phones, only sounds the chugging of tractors and complaining animals; but peaceful nonetheless.
I came to love working with the soil and flora, it makes your heart swell when you look back on your hard labor and see the Earth renewed by your hands. The miracle of birth is the same in all things: it’s a marvel and a miracle, and when you feel a part of that process you know in your soul this is the Way of Things.
Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough. Thank you for bringing those memories back to me — see, I told you you’re an inspiration!
*fist bumps chest, gives peace sign*
(Oh, by the way, I hope some of those pickled peppers came from me! Enjoy!)
You had me at handmade mustard.
Hi HSF – read a story re how a huge maple syrup operation works in Vermont. Some interesting facts:
They use reverse osmosis to get the sap to 20% sugar. They have 6000 miles of drip lines.
They hold the sap for no more than three hours by memory, as they say that it loses quality if held for even a small amount of time before processing. “ Because sap can go bad quickly, it has to be transported to the sugar house within three hours of being tapped. And usually within six hours, it will become that golden maple syrup.”
They say that by using a steam process they can make 55 gallons of syrup in 90 SECONDS, instead of hours upon hours of boiling.
Sounds like they take very good care of their trees. Here is a link to a similar story, but I could not find the one I just read:
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/vermont-maple-syrup-real-how-its-made-forest-trees-2019-6?r=US&IR=T
Farmer,
To my memory you have yet to take a swing and miss the ball on your essay’s.
Today was another delight, having been at your place for the 4th I know just enough about the layout to feel like I was with you all.
Your point is well taken when decay sets in there is not a doubt about the end result, just the timing.
Stay well be a beacon for us as we try to tack to the tight line of the new wind.
Chipon1
Awesome maple syrup, best I have ever had, bar none. Pancakes are not the same without it.
Please do yourself a favor and just try a couple pints, you won’t regret it. Actually, you will want at least 4 pints because the first one will be gone in just a couple days if you have kids.
I am almost giddy with excitement when the days climb into the 40’s and nights drop back to the teens. I know that the sap has begun to flow and winter’s deathgrip shall soon pass. A chat with my syrup-making farmer friend confirms that present winter conditions will soon end as spring continues the journey north.
My daughter and I were out cleaning the yard yesterday in preparation for spring’s arrival. The snow has mostly receded and there is a lot of work that needs done. We had a large fire burning woodshop scrap, our Christmas tree, and leftover fall pruning. While we stood there tending the fire, watching geese on their northward migration, we had parent-child conversations that so many of her peers and their parents are missing out on.
We talked about some of the spring stories from when I was young such as making syrup. As we talked, I could see in her eyes that my experiences were as foreign to her as my grandmother’s stories of horse drawn sleigh rides to school were to me.
Near quitting time one of my bees landed on her shoulder to rest and enjoy the warmth of the sun on an early spring day. Rather than be scared like most would be, she thought it was wonderful she was providing shelter and comfort to that lone honeybee.
After it had warmed enough to fly off again we gave thanks for the coming spring. My time with my daughter and nature let me know that even though the world may be crazy, me and mine will be just fine.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful and prosperous syrup season HSF.
Thanks, we’ll take whatever the trees provide and God willing it will be a great year. Snow is still pretty deep and it’s hard getting around up in the boulder fields, but it is one of the most beautiful times of the year.
And the chicks started hatching yesterday so the house is filled with the sound of their chirping. And my ginger beer came out great.
Good times.