Day 321 of 365
A few years ago, I won a teaching award. My gift was a fancy pen, which I never use, and an Amazon gift card for $500! I was so excited about this, and I used every bit of that gift card buying all of the equipment for tapping trees and making maple syrup. Every year, I say, “This is the year! I’m gonna tap some of our Maple trees.”
I never do it. I’m scared of it, and I hate this about myself. I felt this way about canning for the longest time before I finally tried it and was like, “Oh, that wasn’t that hard at all!”
I am always so afraid of messing up such precious resources, but I have to remember that you just get it figured out as you go. I mean, people have been doing this a long time. I can do it, right?
That’s the pep talk I give myself. Maybe writing it will do the trick. Maybe next year, I will mark the trees in the fall and tap them in February or March, but I didn’t do it this year, which means all of my tapping gear collects dust. That’s okay though. I went to a local farm and got to see a giant sugar house! It was amazing!. My son went with me, and we had the best time.
I love that Maine does this. Every March, Maine has a Maine Maple Sunday, and it’s a great time for people to visit local farms and buy from farmers directly. Plus, the farms will do demonstrations, and I got to see a giant evaporator in action today. Oh, it was cool!
Of course, we bought a giant bottle of maple syrup, and my mission this year is to quit buying grocery store maple syrup and only buy direct from the farmer. We tasted it when we got home, and it was so delicious. Plus, it was cheaper buying direct from the farmer. I am thankful this farm is so close to where we live. For those in Maine who follow the blog, it is Williams Family Farm in Clifton, Maine.
Maybe next. year I will finally be brave and tap our trees, but in the meantime, I am grateful to live in Maine where there are so many wonderful farms that make it so easy to buy directly from them and get really fresh, really good food. It was a good day!
photo credit: Nadine Primeau, Unsplash
Farmer-ish 