If not this week, the syruping season will be upon us soon. Those who inhabited this land before us continue to have rights to harvest maple syrup in many locations. There's an interesting article at Indian Country Today on some of the history of maple syrup and Native Americans teaching the early colonists how to produce it.
sugarbush and sap buckets
Photo by J. Harrington
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Today's temperatures have climbed above freezing. We took advantage this morning and went for a ride. We wore a light coat over a vest and regular shoes, not snow boots. It was a delightful change. As we drove around looking at the melting snow and the growing puddles we begin to think about the thaw / freeze cycle needed to get maple sap flowing. As you know, an extended Spring thaw also helps minimize the likelihood of Spring flooding although our local snow cover, so far, presents minimal threat to rivers exceeding their banks.
Climate weirding and global warming are expected to affect maple sugar production, but, by how much, and the extent to which the trees and the syrup producers can adapt is still being researched. In Minnesota, the center of maple tree density has already moved North (#21). That isn't likely to diminish local syrup production, but we may see a loss of the temperature variability needed to generate sap flow if Spring continues too warm. Even someone like yr out svt, who abhors winter, would not want to lose maple syrup and maple candy in exchange for less winter. Plus, less sugar might be related to less colorful Autumns? That would also be terrible.
Apocalypto for a Small Planet
By Tess Taylor
1& the radio reports how in 2050farming Massachusetts will be like farming Georgia—all’s flux, no one can say what will grow in Georgia,where maples will grow then or whose fine tapswill sap sugar from the cold in spring. Will we get syrupfrom the boreal forest, peaches from Massachusetts?2Drone strikes & opium poppies.Oil spills & poisoned wells.Drought zone. Famine. War zone.3Artisanal, thisintervention:what giftthis day.4My inner cynic saysdon’t bother this is navel gazing& my friend at Yale says my hungerto be near zucchiniswill not save the planet from real hungerexcept I remember in the film on gleaningwhen the priest in his compassion says:those who glean now out of spiritual hungeralso should be fed.5Ecosystem of yard or field or mind:these cucumbers are more art than science,more daydreamthan global action (if we separate the two).But digging now I feel an otherness—life, a great inhuman freedom—here I work a plot that also grounds—
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