Today was quiet. The weather was relatively calm with a little snow, very little sun, not a lot of wind, and seasonal temperatures. We are promised temperatures near 40 degrees by Thursday or Friday. How spring-like is that!!

I'm thinking maple sugar season. I think as a result of finding those old photos of sugaring years ago here in Cabot for the Chronicle, I realized the Cabot Historical Society website should have a page on maple sugaring. Maple products have been a huge part of the town's history and are still a growing industry here.

Some of you probably don't know that Alonzo M. Foster, who lived where Keith Burtt now lives, at Maple Glen Farm on the lower end of Cabot Plain Road, just before you hit Rt. 215, invented a popular sap spout. Alonzo bought the farm, the Thomas Lyford place, in 1866. His daughter, Linie Dell Foster, married Payson Walbridge, who continued working the farm which stayed in the family until the late 1970's when Bob and Barbara Davis bought it. I think I mentioned their extensive maple sugaring a while back.

I was surprised and dismayed today when I realized I don't know what the A.M. Foster sap spout looks like. Now, that may not seem like a huge problem to you, but for me, it was humbling. I grew up knowing about sugaring; when Fred and I lived at the cottage on here Joe's Pond (for about 18 years), we tapped trees and made our own maple syrup. I helped wash wooden buckets and more sap spouts than I could count when I was a kid. I learned to drive the team of horses pulling the gathering tank, carried wood for the big evaporator my father tended, and ate eggs boiled in sap - but I don't know an A. M. Foster spout when I see it??!!

I searched the internet, but found nothing. I disengaged the spout (picture at right) we have hanging by a string at the back door for Woody, the cat, to knock with when he wants to come in - but there was nothing on the spout to identify it. Finally, I sent the picture off in an email to Glen and Ruth Goodrich over on Rt. 2 in East Cabot. Their family has been in the syrup-making business for eight generations and I'm sure they'll be able to help me. I'm pretty sure there's one of A. M.'s spouts on display in the historical society building, but I can't get in there until things thaw out in the spring. The page for the website is on hold for the time being, and if I don't hear from Ruth or Glen in a day or so, I'll take a ride over there. It's always a hoot going there, especially if Glen is doing one of his tours. He likes to amaze the flatlanders with his stories and statistics. He's amazed me with them a time or two, as well.

Then I went back to the page I'd been working on before I got my sugaring page urge. That one was about cemeteries and how early settlers dealt with the folks who died back then. Folks were pretty sensible about it. The settlers probably brought their customs regarding death from Europe, but in their new wilderness home, they had to be practical. When somebody died, the body was wrapped in a simple shroud, maybe it was coated with pitch if their kinfolk had time to fuss, and the body was laid out on a board so the neighbors could carry it. A grave would be dug where it was handy and close by, and the head of the family would say a few words or offer a prayer and a wooden marker or maybe a field stone with the name and date carved into it would mark the grave. If it was winter, the body would be carried to the barn and hung up or sometimes covered with hay to wait for the ground to thaw for burial in the spring. If there was no barn, a snow drift would do. That's probably where the stories originated that to save food, Vermonters put their old folks out in a snow bank for the winter and thawed them out in the spring.

Even before the white settlers came to Vermont there were Indian tribes who hunted in the area. Most didn't live here because the weather was too harsh and there wasn't much food to be had in winter. If an Indian died in the winter, the body was wrapped and strung up high to keep it away from animals, and the tribe would move on. The first one to come by in the spring was obliged to bury the corpse.

I will have more history on the subject as it relates to Cabot on the website in a day or so. And with luck, also a page on a sweeter subject - the maple industry in Cabot.

I have to tell you about the really nice surprise we had this afternoon. Our neighbor, Henretta, stopped by with one of her amazing baskets with a gourmet meal for the two of us, complete with a bottle of pinot noir! It was for Valentine's Day - and a thank you for the snow blowing Fred does to keep her driveway navigable. She does this for us often - and it is always such a treat. Today it was coq au vin with couscous, arugula salad, a baguette and chocolate ganache cake. Scrumptious. I guess you know we'll be celebrating Valentine's Day tomorrow evening in style, with lovely red place mats and matching napkins!! Yep, those were included. And bless her, she apologized for not having candles in the basket . . . ! I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night. I guess I'll have to think of something else for Fred for Valentine's Day now I don't have to plan a special meal . . .