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Memories of Sugaring in Vermont During the 50's
Our spring weather in Vermont (2017) has challenged us with snow, sleet, freezing temperatures, than a warm spell of 70 degrees, just for the heck of it. Now it’s back to freezing. It’s a little iffy for garden growers. The story goes, Vermont is the only state that you will find long-johns, shorts, and t-shirts in the same weekly wash.
Also, the drastic climate change has affected the Vermont sugaring farmers. The sap now starts running in the middle of February, but, for years the middle of March was the time for sugaring. These days using tubing for the sap to run down into vats, placed along the road, makes it easier collecting the sap. When I was a kid many, many years ago, the farmers hitched a team of horses to a sleigh loaded with tools and buckets to tap the trees. When the sap started to run, the farmers were back collecting the sap multiple times a day, if not the sap would spill over onto the ground. You would not want that to happen as it takes 60 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. I can see why the tubing yields more sap and less work for the farmers.
I still have fond memories of the good old days spending time with my friend riding in the back of the wagon while her father collected the sap. I can hear the jingle of the reins as we plowed through the deep snow. I can still smell the wood burning while the sap was boiling.
After the sap had boiled down to syrup, my friend and I would grab a cup of hot syrup, run outside the sap house to find a clean patch of snow. Then we would pour the steaming syrup onto the snow. The syrup would harden into a delightful, sweet, sticky candy which we would pull from the snow.
Now came the donuts, dill pickles, and hot chocolate. The end of a perfect day!
Until we meet again.
