It seems that whenever we’re waiting for nature to take its course it always chooses to do so at the most inconvenient time. Goat goes into labor just a few hours before Good Friday mass? Yup. Pepper goes into heat the day before Thanksgiving and needs to be bred ASAP amongst pie baking and other things? Yup. Starting a garden when the summer decides to be the monsoon season to end all monsoon seasons? Hoo yeah. So of course, the sap run started on Ash Wednesday, the day where Rachel had to be away and I had to bring the kids to the Y for their weekly homeschool program. Not that we ever have much time to spare, but it was a day where we had even less than normal!

We’re doing things slightly different this year. We’re using sap sacks, which have roughly twice the capacity that the buckets we had been using do. This has the benefit of not needing to be emptied quite as often (low maintenance is good) and they don’t have open tops for bits of debris and insects to fall in. I’m a little concerned whether or not they’ll be able to hold the weight of a couple gallons of sap, so we’ll have to wait and see how it works out.

Last year I had a bit of a hint that the sap run was commencing whereas this year I had to figure it out on my own. Basically, you want to keep an eye on the forecast and tap when you see that it’s in the 40s during the day and dipping below freezing at night over the course of several days. So, I made a guess and went for it. I was clearly correct as sap was practically bubbling up the minute the auger broke through the bark on the trees. Gabe and Luke leapt into the air crowing “We’ve hit the MOTHER LOAD!”

Daniel didn’t care. Daniel stayed inside the house and enjoyed using the Legos without having to share. Such is the life of the youngest son.

Fortunately, we are not doing Whole30 for Lent this year (we still try to eat mostly whole foods, just not as strictly) so we will actually be able to enjoy the sweet after boiling off. I’m looking forward to some hearty french toast with our maple syrup. And if we’re really lucky we might just be able to make some maple cream with any extra.

Here’s to a successful season – because we’d really like some maple cream.