the Sugar Bush

3/10/2014

The girls had gathered some tools and all their pails, and had gone outside, so I decided to go see what they were up to. Imagine my surprise when I found them around the maple tree out front.

"What are you girls doing??"

"Getting maple syrup of course! When the snow starts to melt, the sap in the trees starts to run up the trunk, and it's time to stick taps into the tree to get the sap to make syrup."

Each of the girls was intently watching their pail to see if any sap was dripping into it yet. But nothing was happening.

"I don't know if that's the right kind of maple tree, or if it's old enough to tap". Anyway, it's way too dangerous for you all up there! Come down right away, and we'll go to a real sugar bush."

After the disappointment with the tree on the boulevard, I took the girls to a "real sugar bush" (woods full of maple trees, that are tapped for sap each spring). It was a nice sunny day, and the sap was running freely. Elin was excited to watch the sap drip into the pail

Nami and Byuri were allowed to help carry the pails of sap to the waiting sled.

And dump it into the big metal tubs, so it could be taken to the Sugar Shack to be boiled down.

Charie Wilson

3/10/2014 06:22:56 am

Ah the first sign of spring tapping the maple trees. I love this set of photos it would make a great children's book.
Hugs Charie

Jane

3/10/2014 08:12:44 am

I learn so much playing with dolls and looking a photos of dolls. I never knew anything about tapping maple sap before tonight! And I didn't even know there was a tree called the sugar bush!
Playing with dolls is not just fun, but educational fun too!

And are you tall? That looks quite a mound of snow to climb up and pose the dolls on!

Martha

3/10/2014 09:04:46 am

Yes, Canada is the world's number one producer of maple syrup. It's made by boiling down the sap, which is gathered in early spring. "Sugar Bush" actually refers to the woods full of maple trees, and not the tree itself, although the Sugar Maple is the best for syrup. In a traditional 'sugar bush' trees are tapped with spigots and the sap drips into buckets, which are then emptied onto big sleds pulled by horses, and taken to the 'sugar shack' where it's boiled down into syrup. Now a days, a commercial sugar bush has miles of plastic tubing running between the trees to the sugar shack. It takes many gallons of sap to boil down into one litre of syrup.

And yes, I am tall, but my husband was the one who climbed the pile and positioned the dolls. It was too high for me!

marianne

3/10/2014 08:46:10 am

that's one fast flowing tree!

Martha

3/10/2014 09:10:50 am

That bucket the girls are carrying supposedly has "sap from many pails from many trees" (not all in photo, as I only had one tree, and one big fallen branch from the ice storm left, and I was too ill to go to a real forest and lay on my stomach in the snow. And neither are actually maples, but hey, use your imagination! PS. I wonder if crabapple sap makes apple syrup?)

Jane

3/10/2014 08:47:20 am

The girls look so real and alive here.......you are just a master at posing them!
Wonderful!

Marianne

3/10/2014 09:38:22 am

Will it be pancakes for breakfast tomorrow?

Martha

3/10/2014 10:13:17 am

I don't know about 'breakfast' or 'tomorrow', but I was hoping for pancakes some time this week.

Inma

3/10/2014 09:40:45 am

I'm very tired this evening but your girls made me smile again !

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the Sugar Bush

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