Maple Syrup

Many of you may not know that writing is not my full-time gig. During the bulk of my workweek I am quite busy solving the problems and celebrating the successes of kids -- I am, quite fortunately, an elementary school teacher at a rural school near Elmira.

The extra hours of daylight and the rising mercury give all of us an extra spring in our step at this time of the year. Most of us would call that spring fever, but, at my school, it would be better described as maple syrup fever.

For those city slickers who attend the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival, which takes place today, maple syrup fever lasts but a day. But the excitement north of Waterloo dates back to early March, when those daytime temperatures first break the zero mark.

The first student to tell me their family has begun tapping trees signals the beginning of the end of winter. It's a welcome reminder that soon, we'll all be putting away our woolens and trading our winter boots for rubber ones -- the frigid temperatures and whipping wind (and I swear it's always five degrees colder up there than it is in Kitchener) will finally cease. The only surer sign of warmth among our students is the swapping of felt and velveteen caps for straw hats and bonnets.

The straw hats and bonnets bit might tip you off that, indeed, a high percentage of the kids at my school are of Mennonite background, many of them David Martin Mennonite. Though they ride the yellow bus to and from school, their usual method of transportation is the horse and buggy. Many of their families tap their trees in spring and operate sugar shacks.

Post-March Break, the suntans of teachers and kids who've been to sunny climes are usually matched by the brown, freckled faces of boys who've been out helping their dad collect sap (minus the still-pale foreheads, which were covered up by caps).

Then come the taffy cones, which the kids make at home and bring in to sell -- mini ice-cream cones filled with maple taffy. Our Grade 7 and 8 boys are budding entrepreneurs, and announce the forthcoming day's sale over the P.A. system before the afternoon bell. A taffy cone definitely makes for a good morning-recess pick-me-up but you've got to be quick because they inevitably sell out. And here's a sure sign of current economic climes -- this year, they went up in price. After many years of selling for a quarter, they're now 35 cents. Sometimes, there's maple sugar candy (my favourite), too -- three for a dollar.

Wandering through the gym supervising while the students eat lunch, you see maple syrup creeping its way into the metal lunchboxes, too. I quizzed a group of boys the other day on their preferred way of eating syrup. "Maple syrup bun," one Grade 3 fella told me, matter-of-factly. This is really just a bun soaked in syrup. You'll also see buttered bread doused in the stuff, or a little container of syrup with bread for dipping. Last year I had the pleasure of trying to conduct a meeting (among adults) at a table a boy had eaten just that very snack on, and had to interrupt it midway through to fetch a damp sponge because our papers kept sticking together.

Maple syrup creates a blip of excitement that breaks us out of the winter blahs -- especially the boys. Some of my students are kids of few words, but start asking them questions about the sugar shack and they'll suddenly become talkative. More funny are the exchanged looks and giggles they give you when you get curious on them and ask all the basic questions about how syrup is made. You know they're wondering, "Geez, doesn't everybody know this stuff?"

Some of you heading up to Elmira today may encounter my students, capitalizing on everyone's love of the sugary goodness, be it through taffy cones or brimming bottles and jugs for your pancakes and french toast. Tell them I said hello! I'll be at home in the city, avoiding the crowds and waiting until Monday to fill my maple craving with a mid-morning taffy cone. Just another April school day.