Finding Tree Sap (Part 1)

"So Becca, where do you want to walk around? I want to see some of the places you would hang out during your childhood."

Becca tapped her lips with her finger as she thought of the best place to take me. "Since we are just going to walk near by for now, there is actually a peaceful trail just outside our manor where I would regularly go to clear my mind. It's a really good place to decompress after hours of studying."

My eyes lit up at her choice when I realized we had something in common. "I would love to walk that trail with you. When I was in college, there was a similar quiet trail I would walk to refresh my brain. It's good to have a happy place like that where you can forget the stress from the day instantly. Maybe we have to set up an area like that near our manor?"

"I haven't explored much near the manor, but I'm sure if we ask James, there must be a trail or two near by."

"That's true. The place is huge, I probably have only seen 25% of it so far."

"Haha, and I have only ever been near the guest area of the manor before we got married."

I shrugged my shoulders, "well it's not a rush. Since I got here, I already found a perfect happy place to wash away all my stress."

Becca titled her head curiously, "Really? I haven't seen you go anywhere I would consider peaceful."

I turned towards Becca with a playful smirk and winked at her. "My perfect happy place is laying in bed with my wife in my arms."

Becca instantly turned bright red from my surprise attack. "You and your sweet tongue…"

While I was busy laughing, Becca added, "actually, I feel the same way...it is very comforting." She is no longer as shy as when we first got together.

I moved closer to Becca and put my arm around her shoulder as we continued walking towards the trail she wanted to show me. The body warmth coming from Becca felt really good in the slightly chilly spring morning. It made our walk that much more comfortable.

After 5 minutes of walking, we got to the entrance of a small forest of trees. The trail was big enough for 4 people to walk shoulder to shoulder, so Becca and I had plenty of room. The trees looked like large maple trees. These trees reminded me of my goal of making syrup, but I put it at the back of my mind for now because I wanted to enjoy the moment with Becca. All my money making schemes were obviously a step below my number one priority, Becca.

The peaceful trail was filled with the sound of birds chirping. "What kind of animals have you seen on your walks in this trail, Becca?"

"Mostly small little critters, like birds, squirrels, and rabbits."

I replied as a looked around to see if I can find any animals other than the birds that were flying around. "Oh, those all sound fun. Have you ever seen a deer near here?"

"I don't think there is enough food in this small trail to support a deer. I bet even the small animals only survive because of the people that walk the trail and feed them."

"Do you usually feed them?"

Becca put her hands up about a foot apart. "Haha yeah. I usually bring a loaf of bread with me and toss out a few bits every once in a while."

"You should have brought some today too!"

Becca looked a little regretful. "We left the dinning room so fast, I didn't have time to think about where we were going to go for our walk."

I gently tapped her head with my own head. "Don't look so sad, we will have plenty of opportunities to do it in the future!"

We continued walking and silently enjoying the trail for around 15 minutes, when we were coming up to a group of maple trees.

"Hey Becca, look at the sap on those trees. That's the kind I told you about a while back. It was used to make syrup in my world. It's very sweet and gooey."

Becca exclaimed in excitement. "I remember you talking about that! That stuff coming out of the trees really tastes that sweet? I've never heard of anyone liking it."

I quickly had to clarify my knowledge. "Actually, I'm not really sure how syrup is made. It is just common knowledge in my world that tree sap is the main ingredient. We will probably have to do some experimenting. I don't think it will be as simple as eating straight tree sap to get it as good as it was in my world. If it was that straightforward, I'm sure it would have been discovered in your world already. Let's go take a look."

I walked up to a tree that had some visible sap on the bark. There wasn't much, but I ran my finger down the bark and got a small layer on my finger. The sap itself was much clearer than I thought it would be. I hesitated for a moment before putting the sap in my mouth and having a taste. I excepted it to not be a good as syrup, but I wanted to see how far off we were from real deal. However, the tree sap itself was not sweet at all! I recoiled in disgust.

"Eww!! That doesn't taste sweet at all! We need to do something it unlock the flavor!"

Becca spoke up as she was standing near a different tree doing the same thing as me. "No, Nick! It does have a slight sweetness to it! You are probably just tasting the earthiness from the tree bark. It definitely is subtle…"

"Really? Maybe I'm just used to overly sweet things, so I can't notice the subtleness. We are going to need a big bucket of tree sap to take to the kitchen and experiment with until we can bring out the sweetness."