With spring sprung and summer to be shortly on its way, FCP Language & Culture finished up with this year’s batch of the sweet treat we can only receive from our maple trees in this neck of the woods.

This year’s maple syrup harvest was a long haul, and the entire season lasted about a month and a half. The weather was, of course, the reason for this. With the initial warm-up in the beginning of March, the sap was running great. Then, winter returned and slowed things down. Mother Nature decided to warm up again with this being followed by another cool down. She could not make up her mind as to when to stop the roller coaster of climate. As a result, the sap would run good for a bit then stop, only to start again when the warm weather returned.

This year the “Sugar Camp” made some improvements to the process of harvesting this year’s maple syrup. These improvements were made to harvest more syrup in a more timely fashion and under more sanitary conditions. This method still incorporated some old traditional ways of producing syrup so the younger generation could appreciate the history of this activity. New to the camp this year was a holding tank that could hold up to 600 gallons of sap as it waited to be boiled. Once the sap was collected in the buckets, workers would dump it into the holding tank and then replace the buckets back on the taps to gather more sap. From this holding tank, there was a gravity-fed pump with a valve that the sap could be pumped into the boiler to cook. This was considerably more efficient.

Jamie Tuckwab, FCP Language & Culture apprentice, managed this year’s production as he has for the past couple of years. Brian Franz, FCP Language & Culture teacher/apprentice, provided additional help. This year, the volunteer help of Greg Kitchell and Nathan Morris was invaluable in completing the job. Kitchell and Morris worked hard to help with this year’s production of maple syrup, and FCP Language & Culture is extremely thankful they volunteered their time.

As always, there is a prayer said before tapping into the tree and throughout the process from the beginning through when the elders receive the end result. As mentioned before, the entire season lasted about a month and a half, and the department gathered enough sap to produce 40-50 gallons of syrup this year. “This year went very well with the new equipment and much more smoothly than in years past, and we look forward to other improvements we can make in the future,” said Tuckwab.

The final event after everything is said and done is the annual pancake breakfast where the entire community has the opportunity to taste the product from this year’s labors. The breakfast will be held on Saturday, May 9, 2015. FCP Language & Culture is hoping that by having it on a Saturday more of the community and surrounding areas will be able to attend. This is also the day before Mother’s Day so maybe you can treat “Mom” to a homemade breakfast with fresh maple syrup. Hope to see you there!

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