Tapping

It's that time of year. My little sister started to get so excited about tapping. So I told some people that my little sister was getting really excited and that she was looking for taps. I then recieved a response I didn't expect.

"Tap shoes or what?"

Tap shoes? No, I mean taps. Something that everyone out here is rushing to find so they can get all that good syrup! Taps! Tree taps!

My sister gets really excited about it every year. Her and my Father went hunting in the basement to see if they could find some taps. And, of course, we had less than last year. The year before, we had two taps. The year before that, we had three. This year, we had one.

My sister was so disappointed. But, my father tapped trees all his life, having just one tap didn't mean we could only tap one tree! He made a sort of tap out of twine so that my sister could still get more sap. It doesn't work as well as the actual tap, but it works just fine. My sister is happily collecting sap every morning and evening.

But do people not know about taps? Those little metal cones that when put in a new hole in a maple tree allow the sap to be directed into a bucket? Do people not know that sap doesn't come out all rich and brown and ready to be put on pancakes and waffles? That the sap is clear as water and has to be boiled down into a thick amber colored syrup? Things to ponder.

Sap comes out clear, with a slightly sweet flavor. It is then strained (to remove dirt, bugs and whatnot) and put in a large pan. Then you turn on the stove and wait. It boils down slowly. Well, it doesn't actually boil. Or at least it shouldn't. As the sap boils down, the color turns darker and darker. It doesn't get very dark. That dark syrup you buy from the store is usually artificial, they usually don't even have maple syrup in it.

When it turns a kind of amber color, you have to watch it closely. You don't want it to boil. When it gets close to boiling, that's when you turn it off, strain it into jars and store it. No, it's not going to be very dark. Just a kind of dark amber color. But it is good. And it is true Maple Syrup. If you boil it down too much, it will start to crystalize. If it crystalizes, then you can grind up the crystals and then you have a sort of sugar. Completely natural!

Skyline


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