Sparkle Schoolhouse

Sparkle Weekly Wonderings: Maple Syrup

When we bought our little Vermont home on Prindle Lane, we knew we had struck gold. The land, the sweet house, the neighbors, the surrounding forest — it was perfect. But the biggest surprise came when we learned that the seven mature sugar maple trees surrounding the house were ready for tapping.

That winter, we boiled our first maple syrup.

Like so many things that are homemade, freshly boiled maple syrup tastes different from the kind you get in stores. It is uniquely alive with a full complex flavor. It is something to put on a bucket list — a true privilege.

While the sap begins to flow in the trees, another unique phenomenon reveals itself in Vermont schools. For two weeks — sometimes in the beginning of March and sometimes the end of March — the children in Vermont schools … go wild. They are suddenly filled with crazy energy, the kind of energy that is unfocused and can change at the blink of an eye. “The Sap is running,” we say — meaning that the maple sap has begun running up and down the insides of sugar maple trees, getting them ready for spring. The sap is starting to communicate with the branches and prepare them for leaf buds. The children are uniquely alive with full complex behavior.

Spring is coming. The energy is flowing.

So this week we have stories of maple syrup: collecting sap, boiling it, and tasting it — but if you listen closely, you’ll hear the other kind of sap running, too. The magic transformation of spring manifests not only in the natural world … but also in our children.