So here we are in the sweetest season of the year

Although this winter has been a mild one by New England standards we still eagerly await Spring. In this early season we are starting to see the steam plumes rise from the sugar houses in the woods. Those little bastions of industry are producing "the farmers first crop".
It is so labor intensive to produce this New England delicacy. A farmer must first cut loads upon loads of firewood to produce enough heat intense enough to boil off most of the cool clear sap. Turning that thin watery liquid into that thick amber syrup that caries the name of genuine Maple. What would breakfast be without it.
So the next time you sit down to some pancakes with that delicous flavor spilling over the sides of the three high stack think of that lonely guy working away in a sugar shack deep in the maple grove producing that fine natural product.