Syrup season in swing
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Louise May has been tapping the trees at the St. Norbert Arts Centre for 37 years, extracting the nectar that becomes maple syrup.
May began making syrup as a way to connect with the trees and continue in the footsteps of the Trappist monks who originally planted the maple trees more than a century ago.
Recently, the endeavour has taken a more spiritual turn as May began collaborating with kookum Christine Cyr and sharing the syrup for a strawberry heart medicine used during Sundance ceremonies, which include a four-day fast.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Louise May’s maple syrup project took on a spiritual aspect when kookum Christine Cyr (left) started incorporating the sugary liquid in Sundance ceremonies.
“This is a really powerful medicine,” says Cyr. “It physically and spiritually helps people to get through” the ceremony when it is typically taken on the third day of the fast. At the beginning of the season, community members drummed, sang, and offered tobacco to each tree as May put the taps in.
Now that hundreds of litres of sap have been collected, May and Cyr sit beside the fire as the sap boils down into syrup. May has kept the fire going all day for the last 10 days, and expects to be boiling for about four more days. At an approximately 40:1 ratio of sap to syrup, the golden liquid left at the end is a precious thing, tied to the land that it came from and the people who took part in making it.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
It takes 40 litres of sap to produce one litre of syrup.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
The sap flows so freely it’s easy for collection buckets to overflow.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Sap is stored in a cooler in preparation for boiling.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
May, adding sap to the boiling liquid, has been at the fire for 10 days so far.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
From left: Cyr, May and Naomi Gerrard say cheers before sampling the in-progress fluid.
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