Maple Sugar Season at the Sugar House

Steam escaped from the open door and window of the Thompson Sugar House in the University of Maine woods. For the past weeks, I have passed this house on my morning walk with the dogs, waiting for the chance to get a look inside at the process of maple syrup production.

It has been a less-than-ideal season for maple sugaring this year. The protracted winter and now, dramatic, warming have shortened the window to gather sap. But, Francis and Charlie were at it today, and they gave me a great tutorial on the production process. They were glad to, they said, because they had no scheduled visitors this day and it helped to pass the time. The following day, they would be inundated by 80 third-graders. Today was quiet.

Here is an example of sugaring in the old days.

A bucket hangs from a spigot that is placed in a hole drilled into the trunk of the maple. As the sap flows, it is channeled into a small hole in underside of the spigot, then it slides down and drips out into the bucket. All the mechanisms were metal.

Times have changed. It is much less labor-intensive, as are most things in our day. Plastic spigots are now used. Charlie noted that these are safer. If it accidentally gets left in the tree, as sometimes happens, and the tree grows around it. When/if the tree is ever forested, the plastic won't shatter the lumbering mechanisms. Metal could cause considerable damage if put through a splitter or saw.

Plastic tubing is attached to the spigot and runs to a large collection tank, which is then connected to tanks in the sugar shacks. These then feed the sap down tubes (gravity is a great friend of maple syrup production!) and into the boiler.

Francis noted that this boiler is fired by wood. Many these days are fired by propane. Wood requires constant tending, as the temperature needs to be kept consistent. Francis and Charlie continually loaded the wood as they talked to me.

Maple sugaring is a messy process. The steam from the boiler carries some sticky sap in it and as it rises and hits the surfaces in the shack, they get covered with it. Francis said it can take quite some time to clean up the shack at the end of the season. I remember this. Years ago I found some maple sugar spigots in our attic. My huz used to collect maple sugar from our trees in those sad years before he knew me. Anyway, I thought it was cool. Being a girl from a city on the edge of the Great Plains, this was so MAINE and New England-y. I had this romanticized notion from my Laura Ingells Wilder books about the process. Rosy-cheeked people collecting buckets, with laughter and singing, and then pouring processed syrup on snow and making candies from it.

Yeah, not quite like that. While it can be done in a collective, and it can definitely be a party atmosphere, that wasn't the deal doing it from the trees in our yard. This was work. Constantly having to make sure the buckets weren't overfilling. Constantly needing to boil on the grill on our screen porch, in the cold, after work. The porch became a sticky mess. It takes a lot of sap to make a little syrup. He did most of it. I am ashamed to say that, but it is true. I quickly tired of it once it was clear it wasn't going to be a Laura Ingells Wilder-moment. Honestly, I'm a different person, now, and might be able to have a different attitude. I sure didn't have the right attitude then.

The state of Maine has a special "Maine Maple Syrup Sunday" every year on the fourth Sunday in March. That is more of a Laura Ingalls-Wilder event. They even make sugar candy on snow.

Francis has been doing this for over 30 years. He retired last year and now volunteers.

The state of Maine has a special "Maine Maple Syrup Sunday" every year on the fourth Sunday in March. That is more of a Laura Ingalls-Wilder event. They even make sugar candy on snow.

I went back a few days later, when the weather turned bitter cold. There was no sugaring happening, and the sap had frozen in the spigots and buckets.

This has been a tough year to sugar.