Inside the Sugarhouse

Have you ever smelled an active sugarhouse? If you haven't, you're missing out. (For those not in the know, a sugarhouse is where you make maple syrup.) Sadly, sugaring is over for the season (and has been for a long time; yes this post has been a long time coming), but if you want to recreate that delicious scent, try any baking recipe that includes maple syrup. Maybe in future I'll post the recipe for my maple cookies with orange juice frosting.

This post will cover my now-not-so-recent visit to the best sugarhouse: that of my Uncle David. I have been blessed to grow up with an open invitation to come visit whenever he and my Aunt Jane are sugaring.

The dates of the sugaring season are in Spring, but beyond that they depend entirely upon the weather: you need cold nights and warm days to get the sap flowing. The weekend I was there was perfect.

Here's the point where the lines from the trees flow into the little vacuum hut before moving on to the sugarhouse.

My Uncle David has a very impressive network of lines up in the woods. He's not sure exactly how many trees he's tapped, but he has about 2350 taps. (Very big trees might have as many as three taps.) And he set this all up by himself! It took him five or six full days up in the woods to string all the lines and tap all the trees. You have to re-tap every year.

Here it comes...

Every once in a while as we were standing in the sugarhouse, I heard the exciting sound of a fresh batch of sap splashing into the big holding tank. I ran over to look every time.

I'll apologize here to Uncle David, because I'm not going to get all the details, but the next big step after the holding tank is the "RO" (reverse osmosis) machine. It separates most of the water out of the raw sap, which saves a lot of boiling time later.

Then the sweet part is sent to the boiler, which is so large inside the sugarhouse I couldn't really get a good picture of it, but it reminds me of a train engine.

It was steamy in there, but not too hot: the new machine is so efficient that there's not much heat transfer to its surroundings. The wood burning part of it is so efficient that the steam you see coming out the chimneys is all steam and no smoke! How's that for clean energy.

All that good heat is used in the best part: boiling that sweet sap.

Mmm. So delicious. Look at those delicious boiling bubbles.

Once it's boiled long enough to the right consistency, it's drawn off and sent through the filter press. From the filter press, it goes into huge barrels of sweet maple goodness ready for consumption. Uncle David let us sample some of the latest batch while it was still warm. He filled a small glass (the grading sampler) and passed it around, sharing it among the half dozen onlookers, then dryly complained, "You didn't drink very much!" So when asked if anyone would like some more, of course I volunteered!

I ran back to the house and gave my husband a sip (he'd been out earlier but was inside at the moment), and even my grandmother who has Type I Diabetes decided she was low enough for just a taste. But after those two sips I had the rest of the little golden bottle to myself. Mmm.

It was a fantastic day. While I was running around outside taking pictures, my attention was caught by some wood in the woods:

The old sugarhouse! I knew it was still there, but I hadn't really thought about it in a long time. I plunged into the woods in my not-appropriate-for-tramping-through-the-woods footwear to get a closer look.

I couldn't believe how quickly it had fallen apart. I mean, it had been producing syrup in my living memory, and I'm only 24... how wondrously efficiently decomposition acts! I stood a moment, and contemplated my childhood memories of the warmth and cheer of the place, now migrated up the hill to the shiny new sugarhouse. Memories stick like sap to the boards of an old building. I'm glad they left it standing.

Left to right: Uncle David, Aunt Jane; in the steam-filled new sugarhouse

I am so thankful to Uncle David and Aunt Jane for their hospitality and love. It is great fun to gather round the boiler with family and share such sweetness. You are the best. ♥