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A Season of Mud and Maple Syrup
"I wonder if the sap is stirring yet,
If wintry birds are dreaming of a mate,
If frozen snowdrops feel as yet the sun
And crocus fires are kindling one by one:
Sing robin, sing:
I still am sore in doubt concerning Spring."
- Christina Rossetti
While T. S. Eliot said "April is the cruellest month...," in Maine, one could argue that title belongs to March.
On one hand, March is the season that Winter loosens its grip and we see the return of the Vernal Equinox. Days are already longer, the early robins have arrived and with them the promise of a real Springtime. On the other hand, March sometimes brings us terrible blizzards with damaging winds and gray, dreary skies. It is a month when hope, disappointment and anticipation dance together in strange choreography.
In New England, unlike in my early home of Long Island in New York, daffodils are still a distant vision. Instead of nodding flowers, we celebrate the fecund aroma and splash of March's slushy mud which still thickens up during our cold nights. This freezing and thawing cycle of the soil makes the road beds buckle into frost heaves and pot holes. However vexing this maddingly moody weather may be for us, we've also learned it is perfect for the sugar maple trees. This is the season the sap begins to rise!
Photo: Evelyn Rysdyk
March signals the seasonal ritual that sends syrup producers into their lovingly tended patch of trees known as a "sugar bush." There, they begin tapping the trees. Buckets slung under the taps soon fill with a sweetish, watery liquid that will be boiled down at the "sugar shacks." If you visit a sugar shack during the height of the season, you'll be rewarded with the aroma of sweetly scented steam filling the air.
Steam rising over the Bacon Farm sugar shack in Sidney, Maine. (www.baconfarmmaple.com)
It takes a lot of sap to make the delicious syrup everyone loves. Forty gallons of sap must be evaporated down to make one gallon of syrup. But oh, what a gallon!
While you may be dreaming of flower shows, here in Maine the fourth Sunday in March is "Maple Sunday." It's the day that sugar shacks open their doors to visitors. This year it falls on the 22nd, just two days after the equinox! If you live in striking distance of a sugar shack pay them a visit this month. Many have events, tastings and one farm had unbelievably delicious maple cotton candy last year. (Check out this month's Eco-Events and Education section for more information.)
It is also a month to keep your eyes peeled for pussy willows! This shrub grows in wet soils, along stream beds and at the forest's edge. The little furry catkins we prize are actually the plant's modified flowers. Wise pussy willow! It certainly makes sense to start your bloom with a fuzzy jacket on this time of year. Later, the catkins will turn yellow and white as the plants perform their pollination rituals but the real pollen season is yet to come. For now, we still need our fleece and furs.
The birds look for fluff in early Spring, too. The downy seed heads of last season's cattails are ready to harvest. Even as the young shoots of the plant first emerge in early spring the cattail heads still hold the remains of their seed-releasing efforts. Each cattail head is covered in a cottony coat. The birds will take away this insulation to line their nests. In fact, they'll be looking for plenty of other fine, soft nesting materials. It's a vital part of their annual Spring ritual.
I make my own contribution to the cause by taking the loose hair I remove from my hairbrush and letting it go in the March breeze. The wind carries it off to snag on still-bare branches. There, the birds and mice will steal it away to add to the other soft things they've gathered to keep their children warm. (I've found more than one old nest with my blond hairs woven through it!)
Photo: Evelyn Rysdyk
As Nature sets about the frenetic work of reproducing a new generation, give thought to how you might want to use this energy in your own life. The energy of this special time is about continuance. Sometimes that means starting something new, other times it's about moving what already is--forward. Use this fertile time to kick start new projects and let the rush of vitality that surrounds you sweep you out of old habits and outmoded ways of thinking. After all, it's that blustery, muddy, splash-bootedly glorious of the year!
“The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.”
- E. E. Cummings
- Evelyn
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