In the rural areas of southern Quebec, southern Ontario and most of the New England states as well as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the end of winter has been heralded for several hundred years by the tapping of maple trees. Longer days, warming sun, melting snow and frosty nights brought the miracle of sweet sap. This joyous event announces the arrival of spring!

The boiling down of sap for maple syrup was known to the Indians and to the early settlers. Often it was the only sweetener they had and was an important part of their survival in the wilderness. They called it "maple molasses". The sap, collected in pails hung on the sugar maple trees, was boiled down in large kettles over fires in the bush. Today, the sap is hauled to sugarhouses and boiled over tremendous heat from wood-fire or oil furnaces. It takes 30 or 40 gallons of sap to produce just one gallon of maple syrup. Out of the clouds of steam, a delicious maple aroma arises.

I found the subject of this painting about thirty miles from my home and was inspired to record it with my paints.

- Frank Panabaker