Making syrup has always been intriguing to me. Is it true there could be so much goodness flowing through the trunks of trees? I had been hearing tales of tapping for several weeks. Those die-hard sappers kept telling stories of the woods. Their stories, and my love of syrup, kept calling me to give it a try.
There’s that old saying, “When the cat’s away, the mice come out to play.” That is true; when the barn cats get lazy, the mice get brave. There’s a saying I like better: “A field without a farmer grows weeds.” It’s surprising how quickly a good plant – or habit – is overtaken by trash if we lose our intentionality.
Recently, my wife and daughters were away for the day, and my seven-year-old son and I were left at home to fend for ourselves. That can be a dangerous combo because, “When the girls are gone, the boys will start new hobbies.”
Personally, when my wife is gone, I will be singing some sort of dirge until she gets back. If you’re ever around and hear me crooning, “My Bonnie lies over the ocean … Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me!” then you’ll know my wife has ventured out and left us home alone.
This particular day was a beautiful morning after an overnight freeze. If you’re into maple syrup, then you know what that means: the sap is running! I’ll have you know that I have never tapped a tree in my life, and every year I longingly look at the syruping aisle at Farm and Fleet. And every year, we agree we don’t need another thing to do – and that store-bought syrup is pretty cheap compared with all the time it takes to boil down that delicious “tree juice.”
But I like to think time doesn’t count for a farmer. Who gets paid by the hour anyway? If we need more time, we’ll just sleep less. I think it’s working pretty well! (Yawn.)
So this year, when the girls were gone, with tales of syrup swirling in our heads, we started a new hobby! And what I have found is, “When you give a moose a muffin,” the boys will need more spiles. It started with three little trees. But when we tasted the “tree poppi” pouring out – and the pails were filling up and feeding our excitement – we needed to tap more trees! Come to find out, our little experiment has us swimming in about 100 gallons of sap!
After pulling out the old wood stove and a pile of wood, we now have the yummiest-smelling yard around. The wood smoke, mixed with that steaming goodness, is almost too good to be true.
My niece had a birthday party, and again, the girls left us to go paint birdhouses and do other “girlie” stuff with the nieces and aunties. A whole troop of nephews was left wondering what to do. They ran to me and said, “Hey! Let’s go do some guy stuff!” Where do you think we went? To the boiling sugar! What could be better than that? Bottomless sips of sugar off the crackling fire, hatchets to go around, cans dying from crack shots, kites flying in the wind, boys with dirty cheeks and memories to dream about.
My 6-year-old nephew said, “It’s not my birthday, but if it was, I wouldn’t want this day to be any different!” As we were gathered around the fire, declaring this syrup better than anything in the world, there was a long, mapley pause, and one boy said – to a chorus of agreement – “Actually, Jesus is way better than syrup!” I love the black-and-white perspective of young boys trained by intentional parents.
Will my new hobby stick with me next year? Who knows. But I do know I’m loving these father-son escapades and these manly conversations with young nephews ‘round the fire. Seems like it’s well worth forgoing my sleeping-time – at least for this year.
Meet your farmer – Jonathan Gerdes. He and his wife run a farm-to-table raw milk dairy and farm airbnb in Caledonia, Minn. If he isn’t in the barn, you can find him dating his wife, playing with his kids, leading youth group, or flying in the sky. Visit gerdesfreshfarm.com for more info.
Sourdough Waffles (Bulk Recipe)
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