Festival of the Sugar Maples

Sugar Maple Trees have, for hundreds of years, yielded sap that is boiled down to make maple syrup.

The rich, sweet flavor has trickled out of trees from spiles inserted into the trees by both settlers and modern-day hobbyists alike.

Luckily, our local conservation district offers an opportunity for our entire family to learn about how this process has evolved over time.

When I see the hard work of the settlers, the wooden buckets on a yoke, the giant pots held over a fire, the long hours put in just waiting for the syrup to form and then I look at the trees tapped today – with the same types of spiles, the same wait for the sap to begin running, the same anticipation for the sap to be ready in the evaporator room – it is the similarity that strikes me.

The long wait after the hard work is done is incredibly difficult, but the sweetness that is tasted is not unlike every situation we face. We put in the hard work, we endure, we struggle, and only then can we taste the sweetness of our endeavors. And, just like we enjoy the sugary maple syrup, we bask in the saccharine sweetness of our accomplishments.

In this long race we must persist, for the victory is tasted only by the steadfast.

If you have some time this weekend, I encourage to visit this last weekend of the Festival of the Sugar Maples.

My oldest testing out the yoke.

Testing out some sap coming from the spile of a sugar maple.

My youngest attempting to use a hand-held drill to make a spile hole. 

Some of the gorgeous path we walked along for our tour.

The evaporator room where the steam is coming from the sap being boiled into maple syrup.

Some takeaways as we left the festival.