Monday, March 28, 2011

In the Sugar House

Our good friends are making maple syrup from our maple trees this year.  Maple sugaring is an amazingly labor intensive process that only happens in a very small part of the world for a very short season every year.  And it is a bit of a dying art due to the amount of work, equipment, and level of expertise required to do it properly.  Sugaring season begins when the temperature during the days is above freezing, but still below freezing at night.  This gets the sap moving around in the trees.  I'll spare you my amateur explanation of how the whole process works, but if you'd like to learn about it follow this link.  I just wanted to capture the feel of the warm steamy sugar house, and a little bit of the history and tradition that is such an integral part of it.  The picture of the writing on the wall are entries in the sugaring log that they keep every night that they boil.  The bundle of kindling is the wood that they burn to keep the fire hot enough to keep the sap boiling furiously at all times.  You can tell when the syrup is ready both by temperature and by consistency (the picture of the "slick" across the bottom of the spoon is how it looks when it's ready).  And then there is a very short window of time to draw it off before it burns in the pan.  I was told that the ratio of sap to syrup is 40+ to 1, which means it takes 40 to 50 gallons of sap (depending on the weather and how the trees are running) to make 1 gallon of syrup.  I was also told it takes about a liter of vodka and a six pack of beer to make a gallon of syrup, so you can extrapolate from that what the atmosphere is like in the sugar house.  Because it is so labor intensive it requires a lot of people to do it, which also makes it a very social process.  And there is about an hour between draws of talking, drinking, and feeding the fire. After the cabin fever of a long New England winter the business and togetherness of the sugaring season is a welcome change!  Plus, it is the true sign of early Spring, and a sure sign that true Spring, with actual warm weather, is on it's way! 

7 comments:

  1. Love these photos. They really tell the story ..... beautifully!

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  2. Love this! Thank you for a glimpse of where one of my favorite treats comes from!

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  3. These photos are amazing, I love the smoke in the rafters! I want to try your syrup! We'll provide the pancakes:)

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  4. These 'process' photos are gorgeous! It's such a quintessential New England treat, getting maple syrup made from your own darn trees. The best!

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  5. This makes me homesick! Great shots, Becca. Hope the sap is still flowing and we can have a weekend in the sugarhouse this weekend.

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  6. Quickly before I have to run out the door, these are just beautiful and you captured that feeling perfectly. We use only maple syrup here, so I truly hope the art doesn't dye completely - can't stand that log cabin corn syrup yuck!

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  7. Thanks everybody! And Jeni, you're on!

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