Making Maple Syrup

Well Spring is officially here, or at least that's what I'm told, and with it comes maple syrup. Each Spring, for the last couple of years, some friends of ours have been making maple syrup. It's quite a process and we're not experts, but the gist of it is simple: collect sap from maple trees and then boil it down until you end up with syrup. It takes around 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup so a lot of time and energy is involved. The other day, the two of us had a chance to join our friends, Matt and Joan, while they boiled sap.
















I know what you're thinking, but no, this isn't
a still.
















What better way to pass the time than with a
little bannock.
















Bannock is a type of bread. We cooked it by
wrapping balls of dough around the end of a
stick, and then baking it over the coals of the
same fire used to boil the sap.
















Add a little butter and jam and bon appetit!