Maple Syrup

It is Spring in New Hampshire. That means it is still snowing but the sap is flowing. It is the time of the year when the sugar shacks are collecting sap to boil down into maple syrup, nature’s health food.

Yesterday we drove over to Sunapee, to Harding Hill Farm. Here is their sugar house with the steam billowing out of it. Next to the steam vent is the chimney for the smoke from the pine log fire under the evaporator.

In the modern system, sap is collected from the maple trees in plastic tubes. It all runs down hill into the tank. You still see some metal sap buckets on some trees in the area.

 

The inside of the sugar house is very very steamy. If I drew all the steam, you wouldn’t see much else. Here we see the end of the stove which has just been opened and filled with split pine logs. The evaporator tank is behind the red label. The reverse osmosis equipment is in the far room. This process extracts a large proportion of water from the sap, saving time and fuel to boil it down. We had a lovely small cup of warm syrup to sip and savor.

We both enjoyed being in the same room as this little girl. She was so interested in everything that was going on and asked great questions. Curious children are such a delight.

Mark your calendars for the weekend of March 25–26. That’s New Hampshire Maple Weekend, and sugar houses all over the state will be open for tours, demonstrations, and samples.

http://www.nhmapleproducers.com/2016/11/04/2017-maple-weekend