Harvesting Sap For Maple Syrup &
Maple Products
We wait until the nights are below freezing and the days are mild,
announcing the arrival of "sugaring weather". When the
moment arrives the maple sap begins to flow and we tap our trees.
At Dufresne's Sugar House we collect the maple sap using a tubing
system we install and maintain year-round.
Just before the arrival of sugaring weather ...
we take a last anxious walk along the tubing lines looking for damage
by the bears that roam our mountains.
During the 4-6 week sugaring season ... we collect
maple sap and run the Dufresne Sugar House non-stop with 24-hour
days a frequent visitor (this year my wife insisted on four hours
of sleep a day with a request that next year it increases to five).
Once the maple sap is collected ... we immediately
bring it to the sugar house. Maple sap must be evaporated as soon
as possible to make the freshest and best quality maple syrup and
candy!
The special evaporator ... we use at the sugar
house to boil down the maple sap is heated using only locally harvested
and seasoned wood. It takes about one cord of wood to boil down
800 gallons of sap, evaporating the water to create between 40-80
quarts of pure maple syrup.
More art than science ... we watch as the sap
boils into a golden color as we monitor the temperature until it
reaches seven and a half degrees above the boiling point of water.
Now the sap has reached its proper density and has become maple
syrup!
Coming from the tree ... the maple sap entered
the evaporator as 98-99% water and 1-2% sugar. Leaving the evaporator
maple syrup is 67% sugar and only 33% water. We finish by filtering
the maple syrup and bottling it for our kitchen table with a little
left over to be delivered to your home.
What We Do the Rest of the Year
Although the “sugaring season” is very short, “Sugaring”
is a full time job, which fills the whole year. We have grown to
setting about 6,000 taps and making about 1,000 gallons of syrup
per year.
Maintaining the Collection System - We are in
the process of switching from flexible tubing, which must be set
and removed each year, to rigid tubing, which stays in the woods
year round and is cleaned in place using a pressurized water system.
Even with the permanent tubing system, each of those 6,000 taps
has to be handled at least three times per season. The tap hole
has to be drilled and the spout inserted. At cleaning time, each
spout is pulled out and water is run through it. Then each drop
line and spout has to be drained of water and plugged up.
Cutting Wood & Maintaining Equipment - We
burn between 40 and 60 cords of wood per season to boil the sap.
One man can process about two cords of wood per day, if he works
diligently all day, so you can get an idea of how much work goes
into just putting up the necessary wood. In addition to cutting
wood to burn, there is forest upkeep. Dead trees must be removed.
Bear and squirrel damage to the tubing system must be repaired.
Brush must be kept down in order to make it possible to walk from
tree to tree. There is a lot of equipment required for this job,
including an evaporator, the tubing, a tractor, a truck, a four-wheeler
and a snowmobile. The latter two are for getting around in the woods
where a tractor or truck cannot go. All of this equipment must be
maintained.
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