Maple Syrup, Sustainability and A Berkshire Destination

A restful stopover in the Berkshires includes a stay at the Sweet Water Inn in Great Barrington. This is my third visit and when I arrive this time, I feel as though I am coming home. Andre and Lynda are the hosts of this 6 bedroom B&B just 5 miles outside of town. Here they bring food to the table straight from their neighbors and the local community. I want to watch Lynda in her daily passions of serving up the most nourishing breakfasts, so I choose a table in the kitchen where I can be close to the stove with a view through the window. On my first visit in November, Lynda served butternut squash risotto for breakfast. Today, I have organic steel cut oats before me, with raisins, and walnuts and there is a subtle sweetness I try to identify. Lynda points though the window to the tree with a copper tap and coffee can under the tap. She excitedly describes the story of how Andre has placed the tap. We begin to talk about maple syrup. I just had this conversation at dinner the night before, about how maple syrup is not a sustainable product. Facts discussed about maple syrup: It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallons of syrup and one cord of wood. Lynda adds “As the cold winter nights meet the sunny days of spring, the sap flows, today it may if it gets above 37” and tells how she is using the sap rather than making maple syrup. “Andre drinks it as his “Gatorade” before and after hockey and soccer games. “ she says. She adds half water and half sap to cook the oats to give it a sweetness. But, if it is possible for a maple farmer to tap the same tree his ancestors tapped 200 years ago, is it really unsustainable? I am not yet finished with my oats, when in walks the neighbor Urs Biere, a native of Switzerland, a chef and a hunter. He brings grass-fed veal and ramp sausages that are bright green. I arrived to with Sweet Water with a dozen of eggs from my chickens, pork belly and sausage from my pigs to share because it brings delight to Lynda and Andre’s face when I produce my gifts. Urs and I are on common ground of sharing our culinary gifts. Urs and I enjoy stories of cooking, our love of food, the economy, politics and back to food and living locally and looking for the slower way and before I know it, it is 1:30 and I have lost all track of time. Isn’t that what it is all about? I might need to make Great Barrington a destination just so I can visit Sweet Water again soon.