Stories & Recollections

Of Maple Sugaring

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I am looking for anyone's recollections on sugarin' past or present

Mail your stories and Ideas

to

info@desjardinsmaple.com

 

 

Jim of Desjardins Maple Syrup

When boiling with my Dad, he told me of how as a kid he would visit his grandfather in his sugarhouse, His Grandfather boiled on huge flat pans, and of course collected all with buckets and a horse drawn sled. The things My dad remembers most is the Sugar on Snow, and how his Grandfather always had a big piece of bacon fat hanging above the open pan to keep the foam down

 

  Mike in VT

Jim, For what its worth, I sent my sister some syrup last year in North
Carolina and she gave some to her neighbor. He told her he couldn't believe
I made it out of a tree...He thought it was great as did some of the other
neighbors. I think they have no idea how syrup is made unless it comes in a
Log Cabin bottle...............Ill send some more next season.......

 

Scott in VT

Scott writes....An old timer told me last weekend that for every winter thaw that come it is equal to a good run in the spring. We have had quite a few thaws so far this winter so it ought to be a banner running year this year. Sure held true for me last year, no thaws, no good runs

I remember one story he told us. Years ago he and another guy had a sugarhouse just off the main road. Early one evening while boiling these two guys from CT. literally kicked the door in and tried gabbing them and pulling them out. After a lot of yelling and quite a scuffle they finally convinced their southern heroes that the building was not on fire.(it was all the steam they saw) To calm the situation they offered the embarrassed almost heroes a beer and started to explain to them what they were doing. One question led to another and one beer led to another and after about four hours the would be saviors staggered out of there with about five gallons of syrup, a real good buzz and, if they remember, a good knowledge of how syrup is made. I would say they were very happy customers, until the next morning.

Frank in Vt. writes

I can remember the last day my wife EVER gathered buckets. It was March 17
1989. I had a tree with 4 buckets on it that I always got myself because it
was a little steep getting to it . This one afternoon I was fooling with the pump so she went up to get them. Up was ok but down was not, she slipped and fell flat on her face in 4"s of mud.

 She was not hurt so I had to laugh. 

Guess who gathers buckets now. FMW

 

Joe Kist in Colden NY writes

I was boiling Friday night March 5 2004. And I could
smell a skunk, no big deal right. After a couple of hours of smelling
him I looked out the open door. Took 2 steps and their at my feet trying
to get in was Mr. skunk. Well we both turned around and I ran into the
shack and he ran into the wood pile. Luckily  I didn't get sprayed and the
skunk didn't get any syrup or add an off flavor to it. That would have
been skunky syrup.

 

Boden Peters sent this

I was boiling last night alone in the sugar house and heard a loud banging on my door.  Some guy was outside yelling are you alright in there.  I was a little confused about him and opened the door.  He thought the place was burning down, he had never seen a sugarhouse in operation. Especially one that was wood fired with a blower on the arch.  Little did I know he had called 911 and three towns were dispatched to my place last night for a total of 15 fire trucks just to see steam come through the cupola and sparks go up my 26 foot stack.  Do you think I should warn them tonight when I fire it up tonight.



John Mattice writes

A good friend of my family used to make syrup with his father. They had a fairly large operation by my standards-- 2000+/- taps. One year there was a particularly large amount of snow on the ground at tapping time. My friend and brothers went out to tap, tapping trees at about waist height, or so they thought! Luckily, their father came along before they had too many tapped, only about 50 or so. He told them to tap right at ground level, which they did.
When the snow finally melted, they had some interesting gathering to do, as the first 50 taps were way up in the air!!!

 

Jeremy in Maine sent this

If the wind blows west the sap flows best

If the wind blows north the sap flows forth

If the wind blows east the sap flows least

If the wind blows south its a draught

                             Author unknown

 

Doug in Indiana sent this

My sugaring partner had left to go to a meeting around 5:00, and around 6:00  my wife noticed on her way to the house that it was kind of smoky in the barn where we boil. I couldn’t figure out why, but flipped on the fan to get some of it out. I had been leaving the steam fan off, with the weather being so warm.
I was finishing a batch, and also keeping an eye on the back pan as I planned to draw off one more time before shutting down. I checked on the pan, went back and finished up the batch, then when I went to check on the pan again a few minutes later there were flames shooting up the back wall about four or five feet.
I grabbed the sap hose, but it didn’t have enough pressure to reach that high as the tank was almost empty. I got the fire extinguisher and shot it, but it wasn’t enough, it just flared right back up. I could see the flames were in behind the OSB wall board, so I knew I needed to get a lot of water in there to knock it down. Fortunately the siding is metal, or I would have been in real trouble by then. I yelled on the intercom for my wife to come back out, then looked around for a longer hose I could run from the sink.
I couldn’t find one that had a nozzle on it, so I unhooked the sap hose and took it over to the sink and hooked it up there. 
My wife arrived then, and I told her to call 911 because I wasn't sure I could get it out. The hose was not long enough to get all the way back where I needed to be, but there was enough pressure that it would spray where I needed it, so I started dousing the wall, and through the hole that had burned in it.
After I sprayed it for a few minutes I did finally get it out, so we called 911 back, and told them we got it. They said they would still send one truck, just to make sure everything was OK.
I had started to take the OSB board off the back wall, to make sure nothing was smoldering behind it when I heard sirens coming. It turned out they already had three trucks rolling when we called back, so they all came on out. The kids thought that was pretty cool.
I told them I had it out, and they said they would like to take the wall apart and check it out. I said that was all right, as long as they gave me time to get some stuff out of the way. I took down the digital thermometer and the sap feed line so they wouldn’t get destroyed, and covered the syrup pan, since I had a good batch in there. They saved me a lot of work taking out the wall board for me.
We made five gallons and three pints for the day. We sent three quarts with the firefighters, one for each truck.
I was kind of bummed out, it had been a very good day up to that point. At least more of it didn't catch, and there was no structural damage, so if we get any more sap we can get back to it. And now there is no wall board to worry about setting on fire.

 

 

Great stories, Please send more!!

 


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