Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1943-03-25

the sap, just as it came out OF the
tree. 1t was clear and colorless,
like slightly sweetened water. Mr..
Trow regarded us with pity when
we exclaimed that we expected a
brown liquid, and he must have
thought that such ignorance should
be rectifed, for he announced that
he was boiling" the next day
and why didn't we come over to
watch it.
SO the next day, over we went,
equipped with snow suit, camera
and our best manners. Mrs. Trow
was on hand this time-a quiet, re-
served, kindly woman, who treated
us like guests of the family, and
utterly charmed us with her hos
pitality. We went right to the
sugar house, where the boiling had
started. The collected sap is dump
ed from the sled tank into huge
storage tank in the sugar house,
and from here it is piped into the
galvanized evaporation. Sap has to
be used Immediately after it is
drawn, since it spoils easily. 1t
takes approximately 20 gallons of
sap to make one gallon of maple
syrup. Sugarin' season begins in
early March, when the days start
to get warm, an the nights are cold,
thus causing the sap to rise in the
trees. The season is over at the
first singing" of the frogs, Mr..
Trow told us.
The boiling tank is divided into
six sections, meaning that the sap
goes through six stages of consist
ency before its completion. Vol
umes of smoke and steam pour
through the ventilator in the roof
and the chimney-and it is thus
that farmers can tell when far
away neighbors are sugarin'.
Stacks and stacks of wood are in
the sugar house, for an intensely
hot fire must be kept up through
out the evaporating process. The
huge fire box is directly under the
sectioned tank, and it takes little
time for the cold sap to start boil
ing merrily. And the most tan
tilizing odors that emit from that
sugar house! All that was needed
was the smell of pancakes cooking
and we should have gone COM
pletely beserk!
Of course, we had to put our foot
in our mouth again-trying to seem
alert and prove our real interest.
We asked Mr.. Trow if syrup made
in the spring, or that in the fall
was considered the best. Mr..
Trow's shrewd blue eyes twinkled
behind his glasses. Sap runs only
in the spring, he remarked quietly,
and we hoped the floor would quiet
ly open up and swallow usl Then,
with fiat "a and New England
phraseology, he went on to explain
that first run" syrup was consid-
cred the cream of the crop by some,
and that Others preferred the dark
er syrup toward the seasons end.
Syrup this year, he said, would
average between $3.50 and $3.50 a
gallon. Sometimes it takes much
more sap than is ordinary to make
the syrup, depending on the sweet
ness of the sap. That seems to be
the case this year-and with maple
syrup and sugar in demand because
of rationing, the prices are higher.
Maple syrup has been bringing
about $3.50 a gallon in the past.
When the first bit of syrup was
drawn off and strained through
heavy felt Ito remove lime, bits of
bark and other foreign matter)
Mrs. Trow brought forth saucers,
spoons and napkins-for the in
evitable taste" Added to this
were big, fat, homemade ginger
bread cookies, baked that morning
by our hostess. She apologized for
not having any doughnuts to offer
AS that is the customary thing to
serve with tastes" We stood
around the doorway eating, taking
long breaths of the clean, crisp air,
watching the sun make patterns on
the snow, looking across the rolling
fields to the hills in the distance,
seeing the wooden buckets hanging
from the spouts on the nearby
maple trees. 1t was quiet and re-
mote and delightful. Was it posi-
BILE at that moment that a war was
being fought!
When we finished "the taste" we
went back to the job of watching
the evaporating process. Sudden
l., Ar 1or e,to MOD I,oi1ion 40 r1af.