Maple Syrup for Kids

This is a story from the Anishinaabe Tribe of Canada

A long time ago (and still to this day) the villages of people were not paying mind to the traditions of the Earth. The people had become lazy, and could be found laying underneath the sugar maples, drinking the sweet syrup which used to flow straight from the trees.

The people did not appreciate the gifts of nature, and so the Great Teacher took many buckets of water from the river and poured them straight into the maple trees to dilute the syrup. This is why today the sap of maple trees flows like water, with just a touch of sweetness, as a reminder of our responsibility to the creatures of the Earth, and of the great possibilities that exist in our world.

And so it is that it takes over 30 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup!

(Source: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer)