FRIED COFFEE

Warm days and cold nights make for wicked good sap runs. My nose has detected the bouquet the evaporating sap gives up to the air in the steam rising from the vents on the sugar shack down the road. My mouth is watering as I pull on my gum rubbers, ( it’s a little muddy outside), and I head on over to visit. There’s a fire that would make the devil proud working in the old cast iron fire box under the evaporator.

Mark and Cindy Eldridge are in attendance to stoke the fire and check the progress of the sap reduction. It’ll be ready later for bottling.

I’ve commandeered one of the chairs, enjoying the sauna-like atmosphere perfumed with the maple essence of the sap. Absorbed, with eyes closed, in the zen of the moment I drift a bit. As Mark tends to the sap Cindy and I are talking about food, recipes, and the price of groceries. We all agree that the boxes get bigger – the contents get smaller – and the prices just keep on going up and up. It’s a squeeze for sure.

It’s getting warmer as the fire builds and the talk turns to politics. The core of the conversation is a consensus that our representatives don’t seem to give two whits about us but maybe, just maybe, there’s change in the wind with that Obama fella. But none of us allow our hopes to get too high – disappointment has a very bitter taste.

Heading back to my cabin now. More from the sugar shack later.