 So here in front of us you see somewhat of a more modern way of boiling sap down to syrup. This one here is what is called a four-pan system where we put raw sap at that end and then we gradually bring it over this way as it boils down and this is our finished pan where we boil it down again to a certain consistency and then we take it and we finish it off and the gas stove and the pot to the to the to the syrup stage that we like. Now before all this, of course, before metal, I would say must have been had had to have all kinds of ingenuity to be able to figure out how to boil this down without metal. Now there's certain if you go to conservation areas they will they have demonstrations of how that must have been done by hollowing out a log and putting rocks in there until this boils. I really I've tried this myself and it's an onerous job. I don't think that's really the way they did it. There's also people who claim that you can boil sap using birch bark but again I've tried that. That's a really delicate way of doing it. I think what they did there's several ways that the old people used to talk about it. One of them is that you will find some rocks around that has already a concave molded bowl sort of thing to it. If they find that kind of thing they treasured they keep it they will somehow get it to their site. You have those kind of situation but for the most part I think they used pottery. Remember that Mishnabeg were good pottery makers and they would make special vessels to be able to boil a number of much more syrup than just the ordinary pot they used to make. They would have made pots say this bake and would use them to boil it down. Depending on the season it takes a ratio of perhaps 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup and then it's almost a one-to-one ratio from the syrup to the sugar. You actually get more sugar than the volume of the syrup and that process like the process of boiling down the sap takes patience and observation with not only your eyes but your nose and your ears and just and sensing how the syrup is changing. And what we're going to do today is use a propane stove and a modern copper bottom pot to boil the syrup down into sugar. So the process is all about evaporating the water out of the syrup and then cooking the syrup long enough so that it starts to convert to sugar. It'll go through stages where it foams up and then it'll quiet down and then the bubbles will get bigger and then it'll foam up again. So it requires a lot of patience and observation. And you can see how the bubbles are kind of small at this point when it's getting close to being ready to be made into sugar the bubbles are about the size of a tunic. So we have a ways to go here. And you'll see as we get just before we pour it into the trough you can make it like a cut in the foam and it takes a while to settle back down the cut stays in the foam. So we're getting close to having this become molten sugar. You can see by the size of the bubbles that the bubbles are much bigger than when we first started the bubbles that are coming up over here and breaking. And what we're really looking for it's not just the size of the bubbles but as the syrup or sugar drips off of the end of this spile here it starts to form a thread. And we want it to be a thread that will continue down to about here and that we'll be able to break it off. So we're getting very close and this is kind of the crucial decision making process in that if you take it off too early it's not going to granulate and it's going to be more chunky and cakey. And there's rain coming this afternoon so it's taking there's moisture in the air. But what we want to look for is that this thread breaks and that it breaks in the middle. And there we go. So it's breaking off in the middle so we should be ready to go. And you can see the consistency of the foam. It's really cohesive and when you make a mark in it it takes a while for the mark to go away. And the bubbles are very big and deep. So what we're going to do now is take this off the off the heat and pour it into the sugar trough. And then as soon as it gets poured in here then we have to start paddling it. And as it's getting paddled there's more moisture coming off into the air and then the sugar trough is made out of basswood that has no finish on it. So the basswood is dry and porous and it also pulls the water out of the molten sugar into the wood. And you can see that the consistency is already changing as it's cooling down. It even sounds different the granules of sugar. That's turning into mud and this is the crucial point. If we've kept it on long enough it will be able to start making sugar in just a minute here. I think we're going to be okay. Okay so now we're going to switch from the long handled paddle to these are butter paddles into if I can turn this this way towards you and push it away from you. Just keep working it back and forth. I can push it to you and if you turn the paddle over so you keep in it moving otherwise it will start to harden into chunks. And what we're really trying to make here is fluffy granulated sugar so that it'll pour just like the white sugar that you buy in the zines bakwat is the word for the maple sugar. We're getting there. And of course in the older times before plastic and glass bottles this is what our ancestors made. Sugar all the way down to the sugar. I'm going to get the sugar cone. So the sugar inside this cone was poured into the cone at the same stage that we put the molten sugar into the trough and it's just the working of the sugar the manipulating of it and keeping it moving that makes it into granulated sugar. So this is cake sugar and then this is the granulated sugar. That was a major trade product between communities but also once the fur trade started a lot of maple sugar was shipped over to Europe and it was the source of sugar for the kings and queens in Europe. These huge amounts of sugar that they made in the bush very labor-intensive they didn't get much for the sugar but I think what that tells us is that our people love to do this. There's a labor of love here that they like doing and it's an activity that kind of open up the year for them in terms of being able to draw a lot of good things from the land that supported them all year round. Miigwech for joining us today on this journey of from sap to sugar and just being out here on the land with us and hopefully catching a taste for the magic of the process of making maple sugar, zines bak wat, a hal miigwech. So I want to say to you that a big miigwech for coming to see me today, I really appreciate the younger generation learning these ways and I want to encourage you to take part in these things. It's activity we don't want to lose. It also I think what happens is that it teaches you good values. I think it teaches you how to appreciate how much goes towards maintaining the very existence of life itself. So I want to thank you for that. I want to in the traditional way say minua bishegiwech. That means come back again. Damna dan wa minuguk minua guting. I'd like to see you again. Minua misa eopampi.