Syrup Season (Sugar Maple)

Alex Crowson (0:06)

What's up, Fungal Associates, welcome to Completely Arbortrary's Tree Runs. It's the podcast about the podcast about trees and other related topics. I'm Alex Crowson, that's Casey Clapp.

Casey Clapp (0:15)

It's me, I'm here, Alex. Take a breath.

Alex Crowson (0:17)

I've been working on getting that all out in one breath.

Casey Clapp (0:19)

Yeah, you're doing a good job. You do a little, is it partial breathing?

Alex Crowson (0:25)

Diaphragmatic, diaphragmatic.

Casey Clapp (0:26)

Yeah, I think that's partial tongue. That's when you talk to snakes in the Harry Potter universe.

Alex Crowson (0:30)

Oh my God. You know, are you familiar with Kenny G, the saxophone?

Casey Clapp (0:34)

Yes, I am.

Alex Crowson (0:35)

He could do circular breathing.

Casey Clapp (0:37)

Isn't that what I'm talking about?

Alex Crowson (0:38)

Where he could basically play a single note forever.

Casey Clapp (0:41)

Yes, he won a world record doing that.

Alex Crowson (0:43)

Yeah, it's incredible.

Casey Clapp (0:44)

Yeah. I heard that also What's His Name does that. Did that?

Sonatra, Frank.

Alex Crowson (0:51)

Oh.

Casey Clapp (0:52)

Yeah, he also very much did that, and that's half the reason he could do such incredible songs. He really worked. He was a professional in every regard.

Alex Crowson (1:01)

They call, of course, Sonatra, the man who never breathed because he was always breathing.

Casey Clapp (1:06)

Wow.

Alex Crowson (1:07)

Just think about that.

Casey Clapp (1:09)

Holy shit.

Alex Crowson (1:10)

Well, Casey, today we're talking a very sweet tree.

Casey Clapp (1:13)

Yes, we are, Alex.

Alex Crowson (1:15)

We deserve a sweet tree.

Casey Clapp (1:16)

Yeah, we do.

Alex Crowson (1:17)

And it's the sugar maple.

Casey Clapp (1:18)

I forgot. I meant to bring a maple bar today so we could have it again. Damn it.

Alex Crowson (1:24)

Man, what did you think of this episode?

Casey Clapp (1:27)

Honestly, I loved it. It reminded me of such a different time. Yeah. Because this actually initially came to me while reading. Actually, I'm sorry, I was listening to Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass. That's exactly right. Panicked for a second because I was thinking about her newest thing, which is the service berry. Oh, cool. Anyway, so like during that time, that was like right at the very beginning of our entire show, the beginning of the pandemic, the beginning of a new house where I was living, a new relationship. Like it was such a strikingly different time, which when I listened back to this episode, it makes me like nostalgic. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. Oh my God. That's right.

Alex Crowson (2:11)

Man, I felt exactly the same way. I listened to this this morning when I was taking a walk around my neighborhood, beautiful morning, blue skies, gorgeous light. And I wrote, I got a little not literally teary, but I was, I got very nostalgic feeling. And I wrote down, it's interesting listening to these episodes and to hear how our lives have changed. You mentioned Solo in this episode, my dog who passed away a few years ago.

And I just and I also wrote down that we I could tell something was wrong.

Casey Clapp (2:45)

Yeah.

Alex Crowson (2:45)

At the end, the beginning of this episode. And then we revealed that there was a big ice storm.

Casey Clapp (2:49)

Yes.

Alex Crowson (2:49)

And I was probably very frustrated with the ice. You had just done a bunch of tree work at your mom's house. And I could just we I could sense a little at the beginning. I could sense a little bit of, oh, we're we're struggling.

And then toward the end, when we started getting into all this maple talk, we really lit up.

Casey Clapp (3:06)

Yeah, we did. We're getting a bunch of sugar in us. Incredible.

Alex Crowson (3:10)

I also wrote down that, hmm. I sounded to me, I know myself best, that I sound a little self-conscious about my research, like a little scared. Yeah, yeah, which I think I probably still am, but I think I have gotten a little better.

Casey Clapp (3:26)

Yeah.

Alex Crowson (3:26)

Like compare this to rubber, which is we released a few weeks ago.

Casey Clapp (3:30)

Yes.

Alex Crowson (3:32)

Rubber, I think, was a lot more confident.

Casey Clapp (3:35)

I think also even earlier during our world tour and our food tour, I think you did a lot of research on the food especially. That's true. And I think in that case, you probably, maybe that was the moment that you really like calcified yourself as a researcher about trees.

Alex Crowson (3:52)

I still put that on my CV.