Fri Mar 2 2018 Hurry up and wait...and be thankful.

When you're running a gravity-fed pipeline sap collection system (or buckets, for that matter), you rely 100% on Mother Nature for a sap run. 

Despite some promising temperature predictions since our last post, things didn't really warm up as much as they should have and we collected very little sap.  Earltown's been pretty cold and Scott's just about given up believing the weather forecasts! 

This past Wednesday Scott and Christopher boiled what sap we had, but it wasn't enough to fully prime the evaporator.  

So, the sap tanks are empty, the evaporator is partially primed  and we're waiting for that first big run of March.  Will it be today???  Tomorrow???  Fingers crossed! It's up to the trees and the weather now.

In the meantime, the "sugar moon" was in the sky last night. Time to celebrate and bless the upcoming season! 

In appreciation of the rich Mi’kmaq culture of this area, and recognizing that we are on unceded Mi’kmaq land, we chose to set the tone for the sugar season by giving thanks for the sweet water that sustains our family and business.  

Mi'kmaq elder Mary Louise Bernard, a Parks Canada interpreter, children’s book author and former chief of Wagmatcook First Nation (1994-2002) led us through a  Grandmother Moon ceremony. She explained the event and smudged us all before going outside.

Gathered around a fire, standing at the base of a beautiful sugar maple, we celebrated Grandmother Moon who watches over the earth's four waters:  rainwater, ocean water, fresh water and sweet water (tree sap).

We toasted the sugar season  with a taste of fresh sweet sap and then shared some celebratory sugar-on-snow.

Wela'lin Mary Louise! Happy spring!