Syrup Season has Begun

I lay on the couch with my cold while Marilyn and the others went out tapping sugar maples. My heart expanded in gratitude; gratitude for this amazing process by which the trees wake up each springtime after the rest of wintertime. Their life-force courses through their xylem making its way up, up, up taking sugars with it, and for the 11^th time in my life, I will be a lucky recipient of their generosity. If you’ve seen Marilyn’s video, you’ll know that they went into the forest this week to tap the trees. So begins the sacred season of giving and receiving.

We’ve learned over the years that those who have done it for generations do it as a communal event. It’s just too much work for 2 people on their own. And it’s too good a time not to share! Who doesn’t want to spend hours in the forest with friends – human and more-than-human?

In just a few days, there will be enough sap in those 53 buckets to boil down, and a group of us will gather again in the forest for the first long day (or days?) of boiling the sap down to syrup. Hauling pails of sap through the forest from tree to boiling pan makes that first drink of sap fresh from the tree all the more refreshing and that first cup of “sap” tea all the more delicious – tea made with slightly boiled-down sap, slightly smoky and a little bit sweet.

With stories and snacks shared while liquid boils, gratitude overflows in the forest.

Syrup for another year.

By Svinda Heinrichs, March 5, 2026