Sap Flow

I went for a walk today. Getting in shape and blah blah blah, but I was enjoying the sun and I love this in between time. Before the snow melts completely, but having warmer temperatures.

So I was enjoying the way the melting snow creates little rivers and streams, the way it sometimes falls over pebbles in miniature rapids and how it even sounds like a babbling brook, and I could hear another noise. A random, but steady, dripping in the leaves on the ground. It sounded like snow melting out of the trees, except we haven't had snow in the trees for a little while now.

I knew what it was, but I had to find a specific tree to confirm. The next time I heard the drip, I glanced around and found a maple tree with wet branches, held my hand out where a drip was collecting and waited patiently for it to fall. If you've never had fresh maple sap right from the tree, you don't know what you are missing.

I'm not a big fan of real, pure maple syrup, but then I'm also not a big fan of the fake maple syrup, but when I can get a taste, even a single drop of maple sap I will wait for that drop to form and catch it when it does.

It would seem the maple trees are very happy with the weather we've been having. Below freezing at night, and getting to 40 or 50 during the day. Perfect weather for the sap to flow. There is one tree on my road that always seems to be the first to start flowing and when the weather is cool enough during the day, sap icicles form on the branches where the sap is dripping. Those are wonderful too. Lightly sweet frozen treats. If you can get one down. My mom and I knocked one out of the tree last week and I managed to catch it. One year, the tree trimmer went through and cut a branch on a sugar maple at the end of our driveway and when the sap started to flow it formed an icicle several inches long. My dad hoisted my (adult) brother up high enough that he could grab it and my whole family got a piece of that one.

So today, or in the next few days while the weather holds, listen for the drips and look for wet branches. You might get a little sweet surprise.