By Esther S. Zander<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Come boys, get the auger and spouts,”
Hear their happy-go-lucky shouts;
Into the woods, away they go
Over the ice and melting snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Washed are the buckets, free from grime
“Hurry, boys, it is tappin’ time.
The sun is high; tonight ’twill freeze,
Hang those buckets on the trees.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At sappin’ time it is such fun
Up and down hillsides on the run
From tree to tree like squirrels they leap
Carrying pails; some on the jeep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hear that tinkling drip, drip, drip,
Ah, for a cool, refreshing sip,
Crystal clear it runs from a tap,
That spring-time tonic, maple sap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The pails are full,” we hear them say
At the end of the busy day;
With gathering tank on the rack
The tractor brings a full one back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From tank to tank the clear sap flows
To evaporators it goes;
It bubbles, boils, makes clouds of steam,
Fills the cabin from floor to beam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A roaring fire, temperature high,
Stacks of wood in the shed near by,
Gathered many months before
To have it handy at the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seems strange that maple trees should know
Just when it’s time for sap to flow.
And when a storm is passing by
They feel the east wind in the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They know when it will rain or snow,
And when the cold northeast winds blow;
No sap flows then, for maple trees
Need balmy weather — warmer breeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vendor’s cry is not our lot,
The amber fluid’s been canned hot
In clear glass jars where all can see
How tempting maple syrup can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On ice cream, waffles, pancakes, too,
No other syrup quite will do
For breakfast, dinner, and at night
To pep a waning appetite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Come, boys,” with busy weeks ahead,
Long, pleasant hours, few spent in bed.
With sunny days, nights freezing clime,
We know its maple sappin’ time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Esther S. Zander “Come boys, get the auger and spouts,” Hear their happy-go-lucky shouts; Into the woods, away they go Over the ice and melting snow. Washed are the buckets, free from grime“Hurry, boys, it is tappin’ time. The sun is high; tonight ’twill freeze, Hang those buckets on the trees.” At sappin’ time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-654","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/654\/revisions\/710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mapleacres.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}