Learning and Growing
That first year was intoxicating…we had our first taste of maple syrup from our own trees, we had the camaraderie of a small group of friends joining us in our quest, and we had glimmers of what could be in the future. As the saying goes, “We didn’t know what we didn’t know”; and who can discount its sister saying, “Ignorance is bliss” ? We were satisfied with our first attempt at sugaring and eagerly anticipated moving forward in this newfound pastime.
Mistakes are often the best teachers, and we had plenty of those. We learned that an unattended boil could be disastrous. Over the years that followed on multiple occasions we had to bring everything to a halt and spend precious time scrubbing burned syrup from our boiling pan.
We learned that with the welcome thaw of spring comes mud…this job got dirty really fast. A makeshift patio was fashioned from concrete bricks, and that immediately enhanced the socializing part of sugaring and gave us a place to scrape the gunk off of our boots. We also began to see the potential is utilizing plastic tubing in collecting sap; a small network was designed for a section of trees, complete with its own collection tank.
In order to preheat the sap before boiling we coiled the copper tubing from the inside tank around our smokestack. However, we still relied heavily on brute strength for collecting the sap from the buckets or holding tank.
The sugaring season of 2012 brought three very big changes to our operation; we acquired some equipment that made our work easier and more productive. First, we bought a new-to-us small Kubota tractor, with bucket and backhoe. Kubbie continues to be essential to sugaring and loads of other farm jobs. Second, we bought a real, honest-to-goodness sugaring stove, Maudie. She has been a workhorse for us going on eight years. Finally, we got an Amish-made canner; it enabled us to move our bottling process out of my kitchen and, for the time being, into the workshop in the barn.
In 2013 we added a vacuum system to pull the maple sap from the trees more quickly and a pump to get that sap from the holding tank up to a tank near the sugar house. Both additions required some mechanical and engineering savvy folks, along with some trial and error.
Finally, during the summer of 2013, we began work on a larger sugar house. Over several months we harvested poplar logs from our woods, had them cut into the necessary widths/lengths at an Amish sawmill, and began the task of assembling our new base of operations. Many family members and friends assisted with carpentry, roofing, and electrical work. By the end of the year we had our new home.
When the sap ran in 2014, we had added a couple of new holding tanks, and all of the equipment was settled in their current home.
We began the tedious process of relying on plastic tubing for all of our sap gathering, with our current number of taps approaching 300 from our almost 150 trees.
We got all high-tech in 2015, with the addition of an automatic draw off system. One of our electrical genius friends created a device that measured the temperature in the smokestack and in the boiling pan; this helped us monitor how hot our fire was and how close we were to having syrup…both crucial to the process. When the syrup reached its desired temperature, the device would automatically open the valve and release the syrup into a container. We originally used stainless steel buckets for the collection, but we eventually moved it directly into the canner.
In 2017 and 2018 we built a new, larger woodshed, and we moved the old shack around to the far side of our network of sap lines. The old shack was repurposed to house our vacuum system, a new 300 gallon tank, and the pump used to move all of that sap back up to the new shack. We added a wood floor to about 2/3 of the sugar house and laid a concrete brick floor underneath old Maudie.
…and that is where we are today, as I’m sitting here reminiscing about this crazy journey. We still have at least one more hopeful improvement for the future. We daydream about building our own reverse osmosis system (RO) that will remove much of the water from the sap before we begin boiling; this would reduce the time needed for boiling down to syrup and, hopefully, result in a lighter colored syrup.
When I began writing this over a week ago, my inspiration was simply events occurring at that time…tapping our trees, boiling a bit of sap, the return of winter with a vengeance, and the waiting, waiting, waiting for the warmer temperatures to return. Maple syrup occupied my thoughts. This post became a documentary of the birth and growth of our maple syrup saga. At least that is what the words and photos seem to be…photo journalism Marie-style.
My heart is in quite another state, however. As lengthy as this story has been, the full story is untold. As this tale unfolded, precious grandchildren were added to our family. During those same years several dearest family members passed from us…Twilah, Jim, Onice…we remember you. Many friendships were strengthened, while some were lost. People moved in and out of the story as their own lives were growing and changing. We filled our buildings and woods with beautiful souls who made us laugh until our sides ached and noses ran. Hands and minds worked to solve problems, make our jobs a bit easier, and repair the mistakes that seemed impossible to avoid.
Determining the human hours that have been spent by people who care about us enough to give themselves to us for a time…well, that would be futile. Some of those lovely folks are merely hazy memories, and I would be hard-pressed to remember their names. Friends of friends who, for some reason, thought it was a good idea to give themselves and their time in exchange for a quart of maple syrup…or maybe a meal or two or a bed for the night. Some gave many days and nights of tireless work, and others dropped by for a cup of coffee and to help out with whatever needed doing. Every single moment has been invaluable, encouraging, and reassuring to us.
Maple syrup, especially our maple syrup, is special…it’s natural and delicious, and has been a very satisfying endeavor. My homemade buttermilk pancakes, along with a few sausage patties, taste incredible when topped off with our own golden sweetness. But if that were the only thing we got from this, I’d have to admit that it was cost-ineffective, even extravagant, and we’d be better off buying a gallon each year from the Amish down the road.
The best part of maple sugaring isn’t really the actual syrup, is it? It’s family…it’s friends…it’s good, hard, rewarding work…it’s problem-solving…it’s learning…it’s success and failure…it’s trusting, giving, sharing…all wrapped up in a sugar bush.
