Webmaster’s note: The format of this column has changed a bit, with all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! This month’s column is written by Phil.
One of the finest chores on a farm or homestead is harvesting maple sap. It is a great reason to spend time in the woods and rewards abound.
We simply boil sap on top of the wood stove. Our house in March is like a sweet sauna. A forty-degree sunny day finds us in t-shirts with windows open, the sweet smell of maple syrup in the forefront.
As the sap runneth over, it occurs to me what an exception maple syrup is to the rest of human culture.
We simply partake.
We have not, as far as I know, hybridized trees to make more sap, or bred them to raise the sugar content in their sap.
We simply partake.
In modern agriculture, production has had an 80-year upward swing in “efficiency.” A meat bird’s feed conversion ratio (grain: meat) has been cut in half. A milking cow gives at least double what she used to. An acre of corn produces 4 times the volume.
But maple syrup is really beautiful. We destroy or harm nothing as we are given this marvelous treat that sweetens everyday life. We do not plow, harrow, breed, or weed.
We simply partake.
Every year, the trees share the bounty of late winter with us as a gift we could not have planned, could not have conceived, could not have anticipated. Yet here it is.
What a wonderful metaphor for life the trees give us. When your sap is flowing and you have it to spare, share it with the world.
Make it all a little sweeter.
Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Heather is Vice President of Halcyon Grange #345 and writes a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and has generously given us permission to share some of her columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.
Love this one. A thought provoking article.