A Taste of Vermont

Yesterday, pouring rain outside, white winter snow turning black with spring mud. Trees fading into the white mist on the hillsides, sap buckets barely visible. Sap gathered during a break in the weather. A late night boil, half-moon high in the sky. Inside the sugar-house, sweet, enveloping steam coming off the evaporator, a wood fire burning, keeping the sap at a steady boil – and the night chill out. And at the end of four hours, a taste of sweet maple syrup from our own trees, bottled, a taste of Vermont and home for us and loved ones far away.