A PERSONAL WEAKNESS FOR THE MAPLE SUGAR BUSH AND MAPLE SYRUP ON A TALL STACK
THE SUGAR BUSH I WANTED TO OWN - WELL, SOME WISHES JUST NEVER COME TRUE
EVERY FEW MONTHS THESE DAYS, BEING TERRIBLY DISSATISFIED AND FRUSTRATED WITH INEFFICIENCIES OF LOCAL POLITICS, AND SUNDRY OTHER MUNICIPAL GOINGS-ON, I GET THIS DEEP-SEEDED, CRAZY URGE TO EITHER WRITE A SCATHING BLOG, WITH AN ACCOMPANYING VIDEO DEPICTING THE WRATH OF EXPLODING FIRE AND BRIMSTONE, OR FINALLY MAKE MY LONG ANTICIPATED ANNOUNCEMENT, THAT BY GOD, I'M GOING TO RUN FOR COUNCIL IN THE NEXT LOCAL ELECTION. THEN I WAKE UP FROM MY ARMCHAIR SLUMBER, COVERED IN SWEAT AND TREMBLING. I COUGH AND SNORT, WIGGLE MY TOES AND FINGERS, AND SATISFIED I HAVEN'T SUFFERED A STROKE, SWEAR TO THE ALMIGHTY, TO NEVER, EVER CONSIDER THIS AGAIN. UNTIL THE NEXT POST MEAL NODDING-OFF. YOU SEE, I HAVE AN INTEREST IN RUNNING FOR POLITICS, BUT A PASSION FOR FREEDOM THAT CAN NEVER BE CAPPED. I COULDN'T SIT IN A COUNCIL CHAMBERS MORE THAN FIFTEEN MINUTES WITHOUT GNAWING MY FINGERS, (OR SOMEONE ELSE'S) TO THE KNUCKLES. SO TO GET THIS NIGHTMARE SCENARIO OUT OF MY SYSTEM, AT LEAST FOR TODAY, I'VE WRITTEN ABOUT ONE OF MY OLDEST PASSIONS IN HISTORY, COLLECTING, AND GOOD TASTE. MY SALVATION THIS TIME, AS IT HAS BEEN MANY TIMES BEFORE, ISN'T SEATED IN A CHURCH PEW…….BUT RATHER IN THE OPEN AIR OF A NATURAL CATHEDRAL……THE MUSKOKA SUGAR BUSH. PLEASE TAKE A STROLL WITH ME.
A LONG-TIME BUSINESSMAN IN BRACEBRIDGE, ONTARIO, READ A FEATURE STORY I WROTE IN THE MUSKOKA SUN, ON A MAPLE SYRUP OPERATION, CO-ORDINATED BY OUTDOOR EDUCATORS, ASSOCIATED WITH V.K. GREER PUBLIC SCHOOL, IN PORT SYDNEY (SITUATED BETWEEN BRACEBRIDGE AND HUNTSVILLE); AND BEGGED ME TO COME OUT TO HIS SUGAR BUSH, LOCATED IN THE THICK BEAUTIFUL WOODS, JUST OFF GOLDEN BEACH ROAD, A SHORT HIKE TO THE SHORE OF LAKE MUSKOKA. JIMMY HILLMAN, WELL KNOWN IN LOCAL CAR SALES, WAS "SUGARING-OFF" AT THE TIME, AND HE WANTED ME TO SEE A TRULY HISTORIC SUGAR SHACK, AND THE OLD WAY OF COLLECTING SAP WITHOUT THE PLASTIC TUBING. METAL SAP PAILS HUNG OF OLD SPILES DRIVEN INTO THE TRUNKS. I BROUGHT ALONG SON ANDREW THAT DAY, WHICH WAS SPARKLING BY THE WAY……AND TODAY REMINDED ME OF THAT OCCASION. IT WAS HEAVEN ON EARTH TO A CLAUSTROPHOBIC GUY LIKE ME.
I HAD WRITTEN, THE PREVIOUS WEEK, ABOUT THE V.K. GREER PUBLIC SCHOOL SUGARING OPERATION, AFTER HAVING TAKEN THE FASCINATING TOUR WITH INVITED STUDENTS, FROM BRACEBRIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOL, WITH YOUNGEST SON ROBERT THIS TIME. THE SUGAR BUSH WAS BEING MAINTAINED BY THE STUDENTS OF THE SCHOOL, WITH ASSISTANCE FROM AT LEAST THREE OUTDOOR EDUCATION TEACHERS FROM THE MUSKOKA BOARD OF EDUCATION. I KNEW JOHN DUNCAN FROM OTHER OUTDOOR EDUCATION STORIES I'D WORKED ON, IN THE YEARS PREVIOUS, SO HE GAVE ME A PERSONALLY GUIDED TOUR, AND UP-CLOSE INSPECTION OF THE SAP LINES RUNNING THROUGH THE SUNLIT WOODS; AND OF COURSE THE VATS OF BOILING SYRUP IN THE NEWLY CONSTRUCTED SUGAR SHACK. I SHOULD NOTE HERE, THAT EVEN AS A KID, I WAS FASCINATED BY THE ART WORK IN OUR SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS, DEPICTING THE SUGARING-OFF TRADITION, AND IT BECAME A FANTASY FOR ME, TO ONE DAY OWN MY OWN SUGAR BUSH. SO WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT IDEA? I GOT CAUGHT UP IN A ROBERT FROST POEM ABOUT "BIRCHES," AND I'VE NEVER BEEN THE SAME SINCE. WE CALL OUR LITTLE ABODE, HERE IN SOUTH MUSKOKA, "BIRCH HOLLOW," BUT MIXED INTO THE WOODLOT, ARE A FEW NICE MAPLES. NOT QUITE A SUGAR BUSH BUT I'M HAPPY TO HAVE THEM ANYWAY.
WHEN JIMMY READ THE STORY ABOUT THE MORE EFFICIENT SAP COLLECTING SYSTEM, USED ON THE NICELY TREED PUBLIC SCHOOL PROPERTY, AND KNOWING MY CURIOSITY FOR LOCAL HISTORY, HE THOUGHT I WOULD FIND IT INTERESTING TO SEE HOW IT WAS DONE IN PIONEER TIMES. I COULDN'T WAIT. IT WAS ON A BEAUTIFUL MORNING IN EARLY MARCH, THAT ANDREW AND I MET JIMMY AND CREW AT THE GATE OF THE ROAD, THAT LED QUITE A CLIP BACK INTO THE THICK WOODS. I WALKED THE TRAIL, AND ANDREW AND THE REST OF THE CHAPS, MOTORED DOWN THE SNOW-COVERED LANE WITH ALL TERRAIN VEHICLES, LOADED WITH THE GEAR NEEDED FOR THE MORNING'S LABORS. I ENJOYED THE BEAUTIFUL WALK INTO THE SUGAR SHACK. THE MORNING SUN WAS FILTERING DOWN THROUGH THE BARE LIMBS OF THOUSANDS OF MAPLES FORESTING THE GRADUAL INCLINE OF THE PROPERTY. A COUPLE OF TIMES, I JUST HAD TO STOP TO DRINK IT ALL IN…..THE ICONIC CANADIAN HINTERLAND SCENE, THE SMOKE COMING OUT OF THE DISTANT SUGAR SHACK, THE BLUE SHADOWING ON THE SUNLIT SNOW, AND THE AROMA OF MAPLE SYRUP WAFTING THROUGH THE LATE WINTER AIR. OF COURSE IT WAS INTOXICATING, AND IT WAS OBVIOUS MY NOTEBOOK WASN'T GOING TO BE BIG ENOUGH FOR THIS FEATURE STORY. JOINING THE GROUP THAT DAY WERE JIM'S BUDDIES BILL THOMPSON, MR. BLANCHARD, AND HIS SON-IN-LAW, BRIAN MILNE. TWO OF THE MEN WERE ALREADY HAULING PAILS OF SAP TO A CENTRAL BARREL, AND THE OTHER TWO, LOOKED AFTER THE TRAYS OF BOILING SAP ON TOP OF A RAGING FIRE BELOW. JUST THE SCENT OF WOODSMOKE WAS MAKING ME CRAZY HUNGRY, FOR A HONKING-BIG STACK OF PANCAKES. AS THE SAY, NO SYRUP BEFORE ITS TIME. I HAD TO WAIT. AND WAIT. HEY, IT WAS WORTH IT.
JIMMY WAS PROUDEST, THAT DAY, TO SHOW ME SOME OF THE TREEN-WARE (WOODEN PAILS, MOULDS, SPILES) HE HAD SAVED FROM THE FIRST YEARS HE HAD TAPPED THE TREES; AND HAD EVEN COLLECTED A FEW OTHER VINTAGE PIECES, FROM THE AREA, JUST TO SHOW ME THE ROUGH MATERIALS THE PIONEERS WOULD HAVE USED……AND THIS IS WHEN THE ANTIQUE HUNTER "ME" SURFACED, BEING AMAZED AT THE RICH PATINA, AND STILL SWEET AROMA OF THE OLD WOOD RELICS. HE EXPLAINED THAT WHILE HE COULD HAVE OPTED FOR THE TUBE COLLECTION SYSTEM FOR THE SUGAR BUSH, HE AND HIS CHUMS, WHO HAD BEEN DOING THIS FOR DECADES, PREFERRED DOING IT ALL "OLD SCHOOL." I NEVER THOUGHT OF JIM HILLMAN AS A TRADITIONALIST, BUT IT WAS CERTAINLY APPARENT TODAY, HE WANTED TO KEEP AT LEAST ONE FOOT IN THE PAST……AND THIS PLACE GAVE HIM THAT OPPORTUNITY. ANDREW GOT TO SAMPLE THE FARE, AND I WAS GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY, FOR THE FIRST TIME, OF TASTING A COLD SHOT OF SAP AND IT WAS QUITE NICE. I HAD LOTS OF SYRUP THAT DAY, AND JIM SENT HOME A SMALL CONTAINER FOR OUR FAMILY TO ENJOY. I'VE GOT TO TELL YOU, I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE THAT DAY…….AND THAT WONDERFUL RUSTIC SCENE, OF THE OPEN-FRONT SUGAR SHACK, WITH THOSE HUGE TRAYS OF BOILING AMBER LIQUID, THE WHITE SMOKE ROLLING DOWN THROUGH THE HARDWOODS, THE SUN, SNOW, LIGHT AND SHADOW, MADE IT A TRULY ENCHANTED SCENE, FOR BOTH THE WRITER AND THE ANTIQUE ENTHUSIAST. I WANTED TO BUY THE SUGAR SHACK AND HAUL IT TO MY SIDE YARD. I WANTED TO BE THE KIND OF COMPETENT ARTIST, WHO COULD HAVE CAPTURED THAT SCENE FOR POSTERITY. NO MATTER HOW MANY PHOTOGRAPHS I TOOK THAT DAY, NONE RELAYED THAT ETHEREAL SENSATION OF OPEN SPACES, FREEDOM, AND GOOD POETRY. FOR THOSE FEW PRECIOUS HOURS, I WAS A BARD OF THE MAPLE SYRUP TRADITION. I WANDERED THROUGH THOSE GLORIOUS WOODS, PONDERING THE MEANING OF LIFE, AND WHEN I GOT BACK TO THE SUGAR SHACK, AND TASTED THAT INCREDIBLE AMBER BREW……I UNDERSTOOD…..THE MEANING OF LIFE HAD A LOT TO DO WITH A SUGAR BUSH. AT LEAST FOR ME.
I ACTIVELY SEEK OUT PAINTINGS AND SUGAR BUSH RELICS AS AN ANTIQUE HUNTER
I hate to admit this, but in the past ten years, I have bought and sold a pretty fair quantity of maple syrup and sugaring-off relics from Ontario and Quebec. It has been a ten year period in my life, that frankly, has been full to over-flowing with projects and new directions, and in the frenzy to check off all the "things to do" on my rather lengthy bucket list, I've had less patience for having a long term relationship with any of my prized possessions of once. After burying some close friends and family, and hearing about other associates facing cancer treatments, with poor outlooks, I began loosening my grip on a lot of items I had collected, and assumed would be with me until the end. Among those cherished items were many relics, artifacts and art from my collecting tenure, of maple syrup interests; which in reality have been life-long in nature. I have had some incredible folk-art depictions of the maple syrup industry, especially wood carvings from Quebec, which reminded me daily of a place I wanted to be other than here. I had a dozen paintings of sugar shacks and tapped maple forests, and then one day I thought to myself……."I've enjoyed these pieces for long enough……it's time for someone else to benefit from my years of collecting." In this house today, outside of some photographs taken on my visits to sugar bushes, including Jimmy's, in Bracebridge, I wouldn't be able to find even one book or one tiny wood carving, to remind me of this former passion to possess all reminders of the sugar bush heritage. I'm mad at myself for having done this, but it's one of those things as a writer and antique dealer in the same body, and soul, that happens from time to time, and always with the same kind of end-game regrets. Of course I wish I had it all back. Suzanne reminds me that, because I accepted invitations to Jimmy Hillman's sugar bush, and went with the school students to V.K. Greer Public School, and once to the Kortright Centre for the March Break program in the sugar bush, I've at least got those precious memories for company. You know, it doesn't quell my pangs, for actually, one day, owning a sugar bush, but as Suzanne draws my attention to frequently, these days, she is retiring from teaching this year, and we have to hunker down and be frugal to keep our antique business up and running……and our home out of foreclosure. No money for land, she says, with a nod and a confident smirk, like Stan Laurel, used to give Oliver Hardy. There's not a lot of money left for buying back all the sugar bush relics either, unless they are for re-sale at the shop. Hey, that gives me an idea. I'll just be a dealer of maple syrup related pieces. I'd only truly be happy, however, if I could have a sugar shack like the one Jim Hillman had, to dismantle and rebuild in the middle of our Gravenhurst shop. Suzanne is glaring at me now, because I'm talking to myself as I write these lines.
Suzanne is an old softy when it comes to the sugar bush. Her relative from the Ufford area of Muskoka, is Bill Veitch, and his property has long been the site of the annual Windermere and District Lions Club Pancake Social, in late April, at the Dougherty Road acreage, not far from the Village of Windermere, on the shore of Lake Rosseau. As a reporter for the local press, I always volunteered to cover the event on Bill's property, and the week after, at the Milford Bay property of Don Goltz, where the local fire fighters were in charge of the festivities. I believe this has been re-located in recent years to the Milford Bay community hall. The last time we were at the Goltz farm, it was on a rainy and windy afternoon, and as Suzanne and I were walking back to our picnic table, fully laden with pancakes, sausage and freshly made maple syrup, a gust of wind came up over that bald rock off the pasture, and blew the paper plates up and then forcefully against our respective jackets. I may have cursed God that day. I apologize now for that indiscretion…..but come on……what a terrible waste! Actually, the cooks felt sorry for the reporter and his mate, and got us more food and syrup……as long as I agreed to tell the story in my column the next week……of misadventure; illustrating how silly we looked covered in pancakes and sausages, glued with maple syrup, and their responding act of kindness, to make sure our experience in little old Milford Bay, was given some positive press. They got it. And by golly, they're getting it again, quite a few years later.
I have a real passion, this time of the year, to wander out into some sunlit, smokey, sugar bush, to do it all again. It is the place I'd rather be…….immersed in history, regaled by nature, and impressed by pioneer tradition. Now this is cookery at its most rustic, rural core, and it's something that has to be experienced to be believed. You just can count on relics and paintings of sugaring-off, to fill in all the blanks. This is a sensory perception adventure, so if you get a chance this late winter, early spring, to participate in any sugar bush activities, please, don't delay this intimate relationship with nature. The most "Canadian" I can be, is wandering the trails of a sugar bush in March. Thanks again, for taking the time to visit this blog-site. It's not as good as a sugar bush but suffice to say, my memories, at least, are not for sale. I'm offering them to you for free. We're taking some time off this week, my bride and I, and you never know what sugar bush I might turn up in, while on our hunting and gathering adventure. I'll let you know what we found and witnessed along the way. Drive safely out there. Take some time to enjoy the view. It's precious. Really!
No comments:
Post a Comment