On a Sunday morning in late winter, neighbors, friends, and three generations of Mattesons gather in the kitchen chatting about the new sap house and the weather’s impact on this year’s sap run. Old coats and gloves are donned and the group heads out to make the rounds, gathering sap from 140 buckets spread among the maple trees of 7 properties. Jim Matteson resumed his family’s tradition of making syrup 4 years ago and every year more neighbors join in the effort. This year, with the help of many friends, a new sap house was built using reclaimed materials. Making syrup is demanding and I wondered why my father-in-law would go through the trouble and expense of making syrup and why so many in the community wanted to be a part of it. The answer speaks to the power of ritual to give meaning to our lives. For those who are a part of it, January and February become more than just one more month to get through before spring arrives. And for Jim it is passing on a legacy of a productive family engaged in the duties of the season
Making Maple Syrup – a hard but rewarding activity
Each year, more friends and neighbors ask that that their maples be tapped. There is something comforting in seeing the old metal taps and buckets on the trees in February. Like witch hazel and snow drop blooms, they mark of the season. Jim keeps track of the gallons of sap collected and syrup made in an old farm notebook
Jim Matteson, center, with friends
