Maple Sugaring and Baby Animals: Ideal spring activities

With spring springing here (at least for now, April can offer us some nasty surprises), it's a good time to indulge in a couple of seasonal, hands-on activities.

I took my kids maple sugaring a couple of weeks ago out at Deep River County Park in Indiana. It was a rainy, rainy, cold, dark day. Driving through the deluge was leading to second thoughts, but ultimately, it was worth the experience, as the children emphasized.

Starting from watching the sap being collected in buckets attached to the trees, we observed the process of how maple syrup is made. From the buckets, we moved to a large pot over an open bonfire that was cooking the sap to thicken it. Our clothes smelled like barbecue, but it was a nice way to warm up while outside.

Then we walked over, still in pouring rain, to the place where we got to taste the finished product. Very nice. At the gift shop, we bought a bottle of the sweet stuff, in a lovely glass bottle shaped like a maple leaf.

We also watched the short film "Maple Syrup Farmer", which, although filmed in the 1970s, was entertaining and educational. As the said farmer showed the process of how maple syrup and sugar are made, he recounted his life as a boy growing up at the turn of the century. His tales of frogs and mice in the one-room schoolhouse he attended to how some would play music in exchange for food offered an interesting historical aspect to the whole experience.

Islamic component: This is an example of the amazing ways Allah blesses humanity with all kinds of food and drink. Not only do we get fruits and nuts from trees, but maple syrup is another kind of sustenance we receive from maple trees. This is an example of God's Creative Power and His ability to meet not just our very basic needs, but also, provide for our desire for variety in taste.

Next stop insha Allah: the animal farm to see newborn fauna. Review to follow.