Maple, Maple Everywhere
April 2005
Viki Mather
April is maple month. Our lives revolve around the weather, and the running of the sap. Cold nights, cool days make for the best runs. When it is minus 5oC at night, and plus 5oC during the day it is perfect. If we get several of these days in a row, the sap runs fast, and we spend day after day up in the sugar bush, boiling and boiling the sap.
Weather being what it is, the "run" rarely lasts more than a few days at a time, and this gives us a chance to take a break, bring in more firewood, and spend some time at home making all sorts of maple treats.
The best of maple season is the first day of tapping. This will be the first sunny, warm day of spring. We'll ski the two kilometres from home to the maple forest, then begin to set up shop, drill a small hole into the south side of the tree, tap in the spile, then hang the bucked to collect those first sweet drops. By the time a couple dozen trees are tapped, enough sap has collected in the first buckets to go back with a cup and have a long, cool drink of pure joy. The first sap is the sweetest, and only available to those of us who are lucky enough to live with a maple forest nearby.
We tapped the trees a couple of weeks ago — and if the weather cooperates, we'll be collecting this sweet sap at least into the middle of April. One year it kept running into May.
We boil most of the sap right there in the middle of the sugarbush. We spend long, sunny spring days feeding the fire, filling the boiling pans, walking around to each tree to collect its gift, and back to the fire to boil some more.
All through the season, we drink the sap while working in the bush. Most often it is fresh and cool from the tree. Sometimes we'll have a cup of boiling "maple tea" to sip while we watch the steam rise form the pans.
The purity of this sweet water is unsurpassed. It makes me feel a little compassionate for all the people who now drink bottled water, and have no access to this pure sweet water of spring. If you once had a taste of this raw, perfect gift from the trees, you would never drink bottled water again.
Along with the finished syrup, we bring some of the fresh maple sap home at the end of the day. Kept in the fridge for no more than a day, it tastes almost as good as it does right out of the trees.
I used some of the fresh sap to make yogurt this spring. I gently heated the sap to body temperature, added powdered milk and a half-teaspoon of live yogurt culture. This was kept warm for about four hours, until the entire jar had turned into the most wonderful yogurt, with a hint of maple sweetness.
Making muffins, I use maple syrup instead of sugar, and I use maple syrup to make bread, granola, and just about everything that asks for a bit of sweetness.
This is the joy of living in the forest — to bring its gifts into our lives every moment of the day.
By Viki Mather, owner of Kukagami Lodge, a northern Ontario wilderness resort. www.kukagamilodge.com, kukagami@sympatico.ca Viki has lived in the wilderness for 25 years, without electricity, or running water. Read these columns monthly to discover wonderful ways to live in harmony with nature: bringing edible wilds into you kitchen, thrive without plugging into the grid, and enjoy a healthier life.
By Viki Mather
April is maple month. Our lives revolve around the weather, and the running of the sap. Cold nights, cool days make for the best runs. When it is minus 5oC at night, and plus 5oC during the day it is perfect. If we get several of these days in a row, the sap runs fast, and we spend day after day up in the sugar bush, boiling and boiling the sap.
Weather being what it is, the "run" rarely lasts more than a few days at a time, and this gives us a chance to take a break, bring in more firewood, and spend some time at home making all sorts of maple treats.
The best of maple season is the first day of tapping. This will be the first sunny, warm day of spring. We'll ski the two kilometres from home to the maple forest, then begin to set up shop, drill a small hole into the south side of the tree, tap in the spile, then hang the bucked to collect those first sweet drops. By the time a couple dozen trees are tapped, enough sap has collected in the first buckets to go back with a cup and have a long, cool drink of pure joy. The first sap is the sweetest, and only available to those of us who are lucky enough to live with a maple forest nearby.
We tapped the trees a couple of weeks ago — and if the weather cooperates, we'll be collecting this sweet sap at least into the middle of April. One year it kept running into May.
We boil most of the sap right there in the middle of the sugarbush. We spend long, sunny spring days feeding the fire, filling the boiling pans, walking around to each tree to collect its gift, and back to the fire to boil some more.
All through the season, we drink the sap while working in the bush. Most often it is fresh and cool from the tree. Sometimes we'll have a cup of boiling "maple tea" to sip while we watch the steam rise form the pans.
The purity of this sweet water is unsurpassed. It makes me feel a little compassionate for all the people who now drink bottled water, and have no access to this pure sweet water of spring. If you once had a taste of this raw, perfect gift from the trees, you would never drink bottled water again.
Along with the finished syrup, we bring some of the fresh maple sap home at the end of the day. Kept in the fridge for no more than a day, it tastes almost as good as it does right out of the trees.
I used some of the fresh sap to make yogurt this spring. I gently heated the sap to body temperature, added powdered milk and a half-teaspoon of live yogurt culture. This was kept warm for about four hours, until the entire jar had turned into the most wonderful yogurt, with a hint of maple sweetness.
Making muffins, I use maple syrup instead of sugar, and I use maple syrup to make bread, granola, and just about everything that asks for a bit of sweetness.
This is the joy of living in the forest — to bring its gifts into our lives every moment of the day.
By Viki Mather, owner of Kukagami Lodge, a northern Ontario wilderness resort. www.kukagamilodge.com, kukagami@sympatico.ca Viki has lived in the wilderness for 25 years, without electricity, or running water. Read these columns monthly to discover wonderful ways to live in harmony with nature: bringing edible wilds into you kitchen, thrive without plugging into the grid, and enjoy a healthier life.