For days the sun shone and the weather was warmer. The frost on the windows had
almost disappeared and Berdina and Pauline could see out again. The snow looked
dirty and the high drifts were shrinking. There were holes in the snow next to
the house where icicles had dropped as they fell.
The nights were still cold with a frost, but the days were warm.
Pa said, “It is time to tap the trees and cook syrup.”
Berdina and her sisters were excited; they dressed in their warm clothes.
Today it was warm enough that Berdina could wear her leather aviation cap that she had inherited from her brother Frederick now that it was
too small for him. In 1927 Charles Lindberg had piloted the first
non-stop flight across the Atlantic and every youngster wanted a cap like his.
It was black and snapped under Berdina’s chin. It had goggles She could slide
down over her eyes if she wanted to, otherwise they sat up on her forehead.
Berdina and her sisters helped load the spouts and tin pails on the stoneboat.
Pa got the drill and Teddy hitched the horses to the stoneboat and they were
off. The horses trotted as they went to the woods. They shook their heads and
pranced; they seemed to enjoy the exercise.
It was only a short distance to the woods. Berdina and Lydia ran along so as not
to miss anything. In the woods long streaks of yellow light lay between the shadows of the tree
trunks.
Pa drilled a hole in each maple tree
trunk. He made it on the south side of the tree as the sun shone warmest there.
The sap ran best on this side.
Berdina said, “Pa, does making the hole hurt the tree?”
Pa said, “No more than if you prick your finger. The tree has
1ots of sap, more than it needs. When the warm weather begins in the Spring, sap comes up from
the roots It goes to the very tip of each branch and twig, to make the leaves
grow. Well, when the sap comes to the hole in the tree, it runs out down the
little spout and into the pail.” It took a long time for Pa to tap enough trees
and it was chilly.
The wind rustled through the trees and a few birds twittered in the branches.
Occasionally, a rabbit or squirrel scampered about. Soon Berdina and Lydia tired
of watching and walked back to the house.
Everyday, Pa and Berdina’s brothers went into the woods with the horses and went
from tree to tree gathering the sap and dumping it into the large barrels on the
stoneboat. When enough sap was gathered, they started a fire under a big, black
square pan, which was held up with metal rods. The sides of the fire pit were
built of stones and cement. Pa and the boys had cut down some of the old trees
last summer and sawed them into chunks. This wood was dry now and made a good
fire. The fire had to be kept hot enough to keep the sap boiling, but not so hot
that it would boil over. Every few minutes more sap would be added. Finally it
was left to boil down into the syrup. It took twenty-five to forty gallons of
sap to make a gallon of syrup, depending on how sweet the sap was; some trees
had sweeter sap than others.
Berdina and Lydia went into the woods again to watch Pa cook the syrup. The fire
crackled as it burned. The heat felt good as they stood by and watched as the
syrup bubbled and boiled. It smelled so good; the smell of spring. They watched
as Teddy and Fritz gathered more sap. They drank some of the sap. It tasted a
little sweet. It was good.
Soon they headed for home again. When they got there, Ma was busy mending socks.
Her mending basket stood nearby. Several apple butter pies stood cooling on the
big kitchen table. Berdina thought the pies smelled so good and looked pretty on
the red and white checkered oil cloth that covered the table.
Ottillie was on her hands and knees scrubbing the wood floor in the living room.
She scrubbed ‘til it was clean and white. Later she would rub linseed oil on it
to make it shine.
The big clock that stood on the shelf above the table struck four.
Ma said, “Pa and the boys should be coming soon with the syrup?’
Berdina could hardly wait. Soon they came with the syrup in a milk can. Ma
strained the syrup to take out any chips of wood or leaves. She put it in two
quart jars and sealed them tight. Some she cooked a little longer ‘til it ran
off the spoon in sheets, then she took it out and poured it on some clean snow
in fancy designs. If she left it until it was cold, it would get hard and you
could break it in pieces.
This was called “snow sugar”. Berdina and her sisters would roll some in a ball
as soon as it cooled enough to handle it. This made a chewy candy like taffy.
Tomorrow morning Ma would make pancakes and they would all enjoy the fresh maple
syrup.
In a few days there would be more sap to cook into syrup. This could go on for a
couple weeks if the weather didn’t turn warm too fast.
Sometimes Ma would cook some of the syrup down into sugar, then she would pour
the thick syrup into muffin tins to harden. Later when it was hard, she would
cut off small pieces to be eaten like candy. This was a good way to keep it. It
was good, but so sweet, Berdina could only eat a small piece.
When the maple syrup season was over, Pa and the boys gathered up all the pails,
removed the spouts from the trees, washed everything up and packed it all away
for next year.
