Making Maple Syrup

Monday we went to Kaleva to visit my grandparents and help them make maple syrup. (Thanks for the day off Daniel) The trees had already been tapped and they had just started cooking, so our job was to collect the sap. Unfortunately, the syrup had been cooking for only a few hours before we got there so it wasn't very sweet yet. By the time we left it had started getting sweet. As it cooks, there is one cup in the sugar shack that everyone uses to dip in the pan and get some out to taste. What is left in the cup after everyone is done drinking, they dump back in. As a kid, this was my favorite part of doing maple syrup. It tastes soo good as it gets sweeter and sweeter. But now, I have a hard time even drinking out of the cup. Tony refuses to. Some things are better when you're a kid.

I used to love doing maple syrup. I never could remember when it was time for syrup, so when my dad would tell me that they had started it was always a nice surprise. This year was no different. I figured it might be getting close to time, but I thought they weren't doing it anymore. Strawberry season is coming too, and I can't wait. Fresh Michigan strawberries are the best. I hope we will get a chance to up to pick them when they are ripe.