(This is part of the Slice of Life Project)
The trees are about set to run.
Any day now, I will look out my window and see a few cans and buckets dangling from the bark of the trees in our front yard. A neighbor will have come over casually (and quietly, now that our dog has passed away) and he’ll pin up the buckets and attach a series of odd hoses to our trees. He makes do with whatever is handy. This is not a professional operation.
The warm weather is coming. The trees know it. We know it. And the maple sugar syrup-ers (what is the name for someone who collects sap and turns it into syrup?) certainly know it and are waiting with hopeful intent for a good season.
When the sap flows, it is pretty amazing.
The collection buckets fill up fast — sometimes within minutes, as if a little tsunami of liquid has surged from the tree — and we enlist our kids to carry the buckets over to our neighbor’s yard and return with empty cannisters, quickly. The sap sloshes in waves in the cans, so the kids move carefully to the corner house where our neighbor friend puts out a huge collection pan and stokes a fire. The sap in the pan smokes as water is steamed off, leaving behind some rich amber gold and bringing forth the sugary goodness. We lick our lips in anticipation of the first Sunday morning of pancakes and sausage with the syrup made from our own trees, in our own yard. We dip our fingers into it and don’t worry about manners. This is Our Syrup, after all. 
Our neighbor — a rabbi and thoughtful man — goes beyond making syrup with his operations, What he really is making are connections in our neighborhood. He is showing us all how collectively, we can come together. He is showing us the richness of our world, if we would just take time to look for it. We never even considered our trees for anything other than shade until he asked if he could tap them.
Sometimes, a crowd of people gathers about over at his house, breaking wood, feeding the fire, bringing in small sap buckets and just chatting away. We don’t see each other as much in winter as we should, and by the time the sap is flowing in March, the kids all seem to have grown a few inches and news abounds from all corners of our worlds.
Yep, soon, there will be buckets. Soon, there will be spring. Soon, the neighborhood will be inching its way back to life.
Peace (in community),
Kevin
Loved the slice and surprise, it’s a rabbi when you expect a woodsman. That’s what’s so cool about real life,
Bonnie
I love this!! And, wow, am I ever envious. Maybe we’ll move to your neighborhood…. lol.
I love to hear that people are still doing this kind of thing in 2008. Those connections are so important.
Lovely read, Kevin. One of my favorite books is Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen. You’ve made me want to read it again. I think the people who collect the sap and turn it into syrup are called “sugarmakers”.
~jane S
Oh, Kevin, you’ve totally made my day with this one! I miss the days of home made maple syrup! I just fell a little bit in love with your neighbor for bringing this wonderful tradition to your neighborhood.
Sap from the trees – thanks for the memories I had to dredge up from long ago!