Eastre's Sweet Water

Word from Amber Fox says we may be partaking in some maple syrup during the Eastre Gathering. Yesterday, maple trees were tapped for the first time in at least 20 years. Perhaps long before this tapping, these same sugar trees were tapped by First Nations peoples.

It is to be a celebration as the The Land aka Amber Fox delivers some of the sweetness of the earth for us to savour and be thankful. It is too rich yet it's true ...

Posted to our super secret list, came this message today, which I carefully vetted before posting here...

"The day is bright and beautiful here at Amber Fox, and sugar season is upon us! I tapped my first trees yesterday and was delighted to see the drops spashing into the bucket. The sap looks like water and has a subtle sweet taste. It's quite amazing to see the flow. I'll be tapping more trees this morning with the hopes that we'll each have a drop of very sacred syrup for the Eastre Gatherette. The ratio is 40 to 1, with 40 parts sap yielding 1 part syrup, so I've got a lot of collecting and boiling to do!" -- Chip

We know at the dawning of spring, as the days become warmer though the nights are still frosty, the sap is rising in the forest. Today I learned the First Nation peoples would cut a diagonal slash in each lower trunk of the maple trees (sometimes they did this with birch as well), and insert a hollow reed through which the sap would drip into a small bark container. These containers, likely made of birch, were emptied into a larger bark or log container.

Fire-heated stones were then dropped into these large bark containers until the sap was boiled down to a dark, sweet syrup called "sweet water." It's this sweet water we hope to share at our Eastre gathering.

More news from the Land surely tells us we are in sync with the planned gatherette...

"...the birds have returned! The spring air is filled with the sounds of geese. I can hear them in great honking gaggles,feeding and partying at the river."

Is it just me, the boy, or is it all of you, too, getting excited. In an earlier post I was sure to share my hope for the Easter bunny and chocolate. Are my words too subtle?--yet something tells me Eastre's Sweet Water will bring us a passion and celebration of life this year we won't want to miss. Can you hear the bird's song, does it call out to you...

The Sweet Water may not be much, whatever quantities it comes in, however small the partaking be, the magik is there for all.