Tapping In Cemetery

[jmp]

Yeah, I'll bet that got your attention. Well it sure got mine. Was driving through a small town in western MA today and saw buckets hanging on maples inside a cemetery. Hmm.....your syrup has an off flavor..........:o

[happy thoughts]

From last years discussion it sounds like the practice is pretty common throughout New England

http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?20073-Cemetery-Trees...&highlight=cemetery

[spud]

We had threads about this before and there are some on Trader that tap cemetery trees. I guess there is nothing wrong with it but I would not want to eat that syrup.

Spud

[maplerookie]

Well the dead don't mind the activity of a sugarer I wouldn't think .

[jmp]

Well let me tell you why I would never do it. I am a land development consultant and was involved with a project last year that involved looking at a piece of land downgradient and adjacent to an old cemetery (circa late 1800s). The site to be developed would end up using an onsite well so we took groundwater (and soil) samples. Guess what was in both the samples. Arsenic and formaldehyde compounds. We tested undeveloped areas upgradient from the cemetery and the samples came back clean. Based on inferred groundwater flow it was crystal clear that the cemetery was the contributor of these contaminants.

Many early coffins were lined and or made from lead which can be taken up by trees, as can arsenic. Lead is not mobile in the environment but can be taken up by trees. And although I understand that maples have shallow root systems maybe its just the the idea that there are decomposed bodies below the trees. Just my two cents. Many people smarter than me will certainly have other opinions.

[SlopYourDripper]

"Come, sweet death" by J.S. Bach may have been written with this in mind....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komm,_s%C3%BC%C3%9Fer_Tod,_komm_selge_Ruh

[super sappy]

Its just the thought of eating grandma - she was 101 when she died -ss

[jmp]

Good one super sappy. Grandma sure was sweet wasn't she.......................eew!

[happy thoughts]

The place where old sugar makers never die, they just make more sugar,

[jmp]

Love it Happy Thoughts......now you have my rusty wheels spinning bad puns in my head

[maplerookie]

good point re the lead and other pollutants. Happy I don't have a cemetery near by.

[wnybassman]

Sugarmakers never die, they just taste that way.

[happy thoughts]

LOL wny. We are a deranged group :lol:

[Russell Lampron]

With the bad puns that are showing up in this thread I think some of have been enjoying a few boiling sodas.

[campus189]

Well look on the bright side. you wont disturb anyone around you collecting sap,lol

[maplestudent]

I live near a cemetery that has huge, beautiful sugar maples dotted along the stone walls that delimit the front and back. It's not a large cemetery nor is it a really small one either. A few people are buried there each year, some were buried there 200+ years ago. I have learned over the years that it is not only a place for those that have passed, but those that are living too.

There is seldom a day that goes by that it doesn't get a visitor. New flags appear each Memorial day to honor those that have served our country (and that includes some of the markers that inscriptions have long ago worn off). Wreaths are hung on many headstones at Christmas. Gravesites are raked and flowers are planted at many of them....beyond what the weekly cemetery crew maintains. A few have stone benches.

I've seen some interesting things take place in this cemetery (I could write some long stories about some of them)....most of them telling me that love is alive in this place.....you just have to be in the right place at the right time to notice it.

As much as I like tapping maple trees....those are off limits, out of respect not only for those buried there, but for those that visit too.