Sticky Sweet Easter

Claire hunting for Easter eggs

This year we enjoyed all of the traditions of Easter, but also got to observe an old tradition not usually thought of during Easter.  This year we didn’t go to church Easter morning.  Claire is just at a hard age to be at church and doesn’t enjoy her time in the nursery.  Instead, to keep our minds focused on what the Easter holiday is all about we watched a History Channel episode about the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.  Then we spent the afternoon with family.  Stuffing ourselves with lots of yummy food and watching Claire with her first Easter Egg Hunt was a blast.   We hid the plastic eggs and filled them with treasures such as candy, Easter socks, and stickers (which Claire loves right now).  I think it’s safe to say that she really enjoyed the holiday even though she doesn’t know the true meaning behind Easter yet.

Claire sampling the maple syrup

After we got home that afternoon we did something that isn’t a normal tradition our family has during Easter.  We drove the ATV down to a neighbor’s sugar shack and watched as they finished boiling and bottling maple syrup for the day.  Of course Claire had fun with this because we were out playing in the woods, but what she didn’t expect was to have a sample of the syrup.  Like she hadn’t had enough sugar that day anyway, with all the Easter candy, but I let her enjoy it none the less.  And she loved it!  She guzzled that syrup out of the Dixie cup as fast as she could!  And when it was all gone she grabbed the cup from me and tried to lick out every last drop, ha-ha!

I thought the process of making maple syrup was very interesting so here is some info for you.  The maple syrup season starts in Michigan usually around the end of February or beginning of March when the night temperature is freezing (best in the 20’s), and the day temperature reaches 40 degrees.  Sap can be collected from sugar maple trees a few different ways.  Sap can be caught in a bucket, run through tubing, or caught in a bag hanging on the tree.  A 7/16 inch by 1 ½ to 2 inch deep hole is drilled into the sugar maple tree and a spile (tap) is placed in the hole.  Then with ideal weather the sap will drain from the tree.  Depending on the tree size and weather, one tree may give up to 1/3 gallon of syrup yearly.  At the end of the season, which is when the trees begin budding, the spiles are removed from the tree and the tree continues to grow without harm from the tapping process.

Sap is a clear, watery substance that comes from the tree.  It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make just 1 gallon of syrup.  The water is boiled out of the sap until it becomes a syrup consistency.  Then before the syrup can be bottled the sugar sand (minerals) is strained off the syrup.  The result of all this work is pure, yummy, sticky, sweet maple syrup.

So there you have it.  A quick overview of what goes into the making of maple syrup J