FROM THE SWEET SAP OF THE MAPLE TREES
Students at Nay Ah Shings Schools are given the opportunity to experience the tradition of sugar bush camp and learn how to make maple sugar and syrup. The older students are eager to help the younger students as often as they can. The students will host a pancake breakfast for family members at a later date in May and showcase their successes gifting syrup and sugar.
Photos and story by Vivian LaMoore, Inaajimowin Staff
The rich, sweet aroma of maple sap simmering over a crack ling, smoky wood fire enveloped the rustic atmosphere of the traditional sugar bush camp. Here, countless generations of Mille Lacs Band members have lovingly harvested sap from the towering trees, transforming it into velvety maple syrup and thick, golden sugar. The joyful sounds of children’s laugh ter and inquisitive questions filled the air, harmonizing like the enchanting songs of birds. The children, students from Nay Ah Shing Schools Abinoojiiyag (Abi), immersed themselves in the time-honored tradition of the sugar bush camp, eager to learn its cherished traditions and techniques.
George Morrow, a Four Seasons instructor at Abi, previously guided the students through the steps of tapping trees and collecting sap from the maple trees that perhaps had been tapped by some of the student’s great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. On a chilly April 9 morning he was now leading them through the stages of boiling the sap to make syrup and sugar.
syrup and sugar. Part of the fun of Sugar Bush Camp — beyond taking a break from studying their A, B, Cs, and 1, 2, and 3s — is the op portunity to bond with nature by simply running freely through the woods, supervised by their teachers, of course. The super vision includes snap lessons of where the trees collect the water that helps to make the sap, and the taste of the sap itself is often learned by simply licking a tree or two. “Mmmm, it’s sweet,” one young boy shouted.
“Some of these kids just don’t have any other opportunity to learn the ways of our ancestors,” Morrow said. “It is so im portant to teach them every chance we get.”
