It's a rainy, dreich (Scottish for grey, wet and crappy) day here at the farmette. The world is still insane with Trump ordering a strike on Yemen, among many other ridiculously dictatorial actions.
Mother Nature has decided to weigh in, too, with tornadoes and horrible storms raging across the southern U.S., killing at least 30 people so far.
Luckily, here in Grey County, it's pretty chill, although getting warmer. More important, sap is running in the maples and syrup is getting made over at the Thornton's sugar bush.
This year, they decided to install lines instead of individual buckets to gather the precious liquid. Which is fine by me, having helped (a little bit) in years past by hoiking heavy pails through snow up to my knees.
Fourteen lines were put up mostly by Brian and Sandy, with some help from their friend David.
It all happened last Sunday when I went to provide moral support and kitchen help for Erin's boyfriend Tyler's birthday dinner. Oh, and I got to eat it, too. Yum.
Their forest now looks like it's strung up with a bunch of clothes lines. In reality, the tiny pipes have been cleverly placed on a downward slope, so the entire operation is gravity fed. Cool, eh? The picture here is in the eaves of the cabin they built back in the day, where the sap is collected. It's now maple syrup central, with huge bins and a reverse osmosis system that looks like something from a sci-fi film.
Once collected the sap has to be boiled down in a hot, hot, hot, evaporator. Then the beautiful oakey coloured sugary liquid can be bottled.
They went big this year with a whole skid of bottles and Sandy ordered proper labels. Here's the first batch, on the kitchen counter. Gorgeous, eh?
Lady Bank Maples is the name of their operation. They have a sign at the end of their driveway with the same logo.
There's nothing quite as Canadian as tapping trees and boiling down the sap to make syrup, I say.
I also say we all stick together (pun intended) to keep Canada Canadian and out of the hands of the orange maniac. Agreed?
Gratuitous cat photo courtesy of Fred and Hobbes who are politely sharing a sunbeam. As Canadian cats do. Until next week.
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