Winter Warm Up

Like most gardening aficionados in Michigan I have begun getting "that itch" ~ You know what itch that is... The urge to begin planning, pl;anting and getting dirty! It's a bit unrealistic though, as it is a typical Michigan winter and we're smack dab in the middle of February. Gardening to me however isn't ONLY about the plants. It is some type of project or experience involving the outdoors and being able to save the fruits of Mother Nature's labor!

Last year my family and I took a class through the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation program. It was a short program called "From Sap to Syrup" given by Faye Stoner. My children were young (only 2 and 4 at the time) but they really got into collecting the Maple tree sap Faye allowed us to collect, and we made a whopping 3 pints of Maple Syrup!!!

I suppose I was bitten by the bug, or maybe it was that old itch, but I WANTED - No needed to do something, so I decided we'd tap our own trees this year.

We live in a relatively new sub with few trees, so finding someone that would let me tap their trees became the biggest challenge, one easily overcome by placing a post on Craigslist with my specific request. I bought my taps from Ann Arbor's Downtown Home and Garden, so now we wait for the right timing...

We're having a warm-up right now, however a quick note from Faye suggested we wait until the first of March to be really sure the sap would be running... My instinct is to tap them now but I'll wait...