Paul's grandmother describes her first sugaring-off party at Tante Loulou's farmhouse where they boiled maple sap into syrup and poured it on snow to make a delicious dessert.
An introduction to the basic concepts of food production, distribution, and consumption by tracing the production of maple syrup from maple trees to the finished product.
When his father takes him to visit Vermont, Buster sends postcards to his friends back home telling them what he is learning about maple syrup and the "mud season.".
When he meets a family of hungry bears in the woods at the peak of maple sugaring time, Anytime Mapleson, who likes pancakes anytime, invites them home for some pancakes and maple syrup.
Rides the Wind, a young Missisauga boy who is often taunted because of his crippled leg, becomes a hero of his people after a red squirrel shares with him the secret of where to find maple syrup.