Northern New England Spring Quiz

Just one question, for any readers in California, Texas, Kuala Lumpur, etc.

What’s going on here? This used to be a common late winter and early spring sight in Northern New England thirty years and longer ago:

Those are sap buckets hanging on a sugar maple. Nowadays sugar makers mostly use plastic tubing to collect the sap rather than buckets, so you don’t see this so often. We were on our way back to Newton, heading south on North Raymond Road through Poland or Raymond, ME. We just getting to the only crossroad on that 8-mile stretch when Arlene said, “If you can, turn right and stop.” She’s been wanting a photo to draw a stamp from. It was about sunset. The camera protested that there wasn’t enough light to get a picture, but I was adamant.

When I was in college I used to see sap buckets like this on trees along US 7 between Williamstown and Bennington.

If you don’t know what happens between the tree and the pancake, try googling “maple sugar making”. Or check the Mass Maple – make your own site. Maple sugaring is a labor- and energy-intensive, but not tremendously complex, process. I’m just here to show you what I saw.