Michigan Forest Life - March 1, 2026

Hello friends,

Have you tapped a maple tree this year? Now is the time. I put in two taps last weekend (Photo1).  Tapping is an incredibly easy process. There are many kinds of hardware available; from the traditional galvanized bucket that hangs from a spile channeling the sap drip, to individual plastic sap bags that hang from the tree at each tap, to a network of blue-tinted, flexible polyethylene tubing that delivers sap from many trees to a central reservoir.

The first time I tapped a maple, forty-six years ago, I simply drilled a hole two inches into a mature maple tree and pounded a piece of conduit into the tree. A notch was cut into the end of the pipe to hang a bucket from.  I was amazed at how sap flowed so automatically, and at how much it seemed to be simply water. Who would ever guess that this clear liquid would reduce to such a delicately, delicious (and sticky) sweetener? The sap is nothing like the syrup.

Now I use a simple plastic tap and short flexible tube (purchased from the internet) leading to a repurposed 2.5-gallon plastic water container. Sap flows. I accumulate full containers – about 20 of them total from two taps. When the trees bud out and Mother Nature turns off the sap, I spend about sixteen hours boiling the sap down on the Treehouse grill. I begin before the sun rises. By late afternoon, a cotton candy aroma fills air surrounding the porch. I usually surrender well after dark and begin again the following morning. Finally, I strain this liquid gold and bottle it in repurposed bourbon bottles. I always test a spoonful. Straight maple syrup. Pure. Exquisite. Treehouse-made. One more day is needed to complete the process: the encore. A breakfast stack of sourdough or buttermilk pancakes, three thick slices of bacon, all smothered in a slurry of maple syrup. Thank you Mother Nature!

It’s time for another FOREST LEGEND: THE TALE OF OL’ SPLIT TOE preview snippet! 23 of 27 (Photo 2). We are getting close to the March 31 publication date. 

I wish you the wonder of changing maple sap into syrup – and the joy of its cotton candy smell.

Until next time,

Dan

Excerpt from Chapter 28

AD 1986 - It did not take long for the boy to find the twelve white pines along the river’s edge. He did not know their significance, but he sensed their spirit, and he wondered about the crumbling basement located at the top of the sand bluff.

How could anyone let a shelter in such a beautiful spot collapse? The boy wondered.

When the boy walked to the river’s edge, he listened for the whisper of wind drifting through the branches of the largest tree—the grandfather tree. When he closed his eyes, the boy thought he heard the old tree speaking to him.

“You are here in the forest,” the tree spoke, “the natural world. Take some time to absorb it. To feel it. Do not fight Mother Nature, my young friend. She can bring you peace.”

The boy always listened to the tree’s wisdom. In time, the boy found he could go to this old tree for sage advice. As the boy grew, he sat by the river from time to time, closed his eyes, and listened as the grandfather tree helped him to think through what was troubling him.

Copyright @ 2026 by Daniel S. Ellens

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Praise for FOREST LEGEND

“A powerful, lyrical meditation on wilderness, myth, and memory. Ellens has created a tale that feels ancient and urgent at the same time.”

– William Gibson, author of Neuromancer and New York Times bestseller Agency.