The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Maple syruping an art in Litchfield County
WASHINGTON — The blue tubes that are strung between trees in the forests of Litchfield County are used by maple syrup producers to quickly collect sap that’s on its way to being boiled down into syrup.
Many maple syrup producers use modern equipment such as vacuum systems and fuel-oil fired evaporators to quickly collect sap and boil it down.
But the first producers of maple syrup used a technique that was energy efficient and easy to get. Native Americans used stones, called “boiling stones,” that were heated in a fire and transferred into a wooden trough full
of sap.
“The hot stones will boil the sap. The heat of the stone has nowhere to go except into the sap,” without any loss of energy, said Jeff Kalin of Bethlehem.
Kalin and his wife, Judy, will demonstrate the centuries-old process of syrup-making at the upcoming Maple Sugar Festival on March 9 at the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington.
Metal maple taps that are drilled into trees to access the sap didn’t exist when Native Americans were making syrup. Instead they used “a splint of wood with a groove in it to direct the sap into a bark bowl,” Kalin said.
Once the sap was boiled down to a thick liquid, the Native Americans put the syrup in a birch container or a gourd and placed it in the sun. The remaining liquid evaporated and it became maple sugar, a product that is dry and can be easily carried and stored.
The Kalins tap 50 trees on their property, and Jeff Kalin turns the sap into maple sugar.
“I take for granted that sugar comes from trees, but a lot of people have never had real maple sugar,” he said.
Maple syrup has become a thriving agricultural business in the state. In 2018, Connecticut produced 18,000 gallons of syrup, according to the U.S Department of Agriculture.
According to the state Department of Agriculture, production of maple syrup is the “oldest agricultural enterprise in the United States.” Fruther, state documbents show the Nutmeg state is 10th in the country for maple syrup production.
Members of the Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut, based in Litchfield, would like more people to know how the uniquely North American product is made, and how to make it themselves.
Mark Harran of Litchfield is the president of the 200-member group. He and his wife, Kay Carroll, own Brookside Farm, also in Litchfield.
This year, Harran started tapping his trees a few weeks ago, but he said the recent cold weather has slowed down the flow of sap.
“You have to have a passion for this,” Harran said.
He uses sap tubes to collect the liquid which then goes into an evaporator. The machine is “very state of the art. It saves 85 percent of the sap, it’s environmentally sound,” he said.
The producer’s association offers two syrup-making workshops each year, in November and January. “Maple Training 101” is “designed for the backyard hobby producer who just want to start out in maple syruping,” the description notes.
The state’s largest syrup producer is arguably Lamothe’s Sugar House in the Whigville section of Burlington. Owner Rob Lamothe, who is a member of the producer’s group, taps 5,600 trees each year.
“We started out with seven (collecting) buckets. Then we went to 35 and we got to a point where we had 350 buckets,” Lamothe said. “They are cumbersome and time consuming,”
Soon after, he said, the company “gradually went to maple syrup tubing. We saw no other choice.”
The change also included using a vacuum system that collects the sap, even if it’s flowing slowly, Lamothe said. “It’s doubled the yield,” he said.
The tubing doesn’t damage the tree, he added, but, “you get every drop of sap that’s available to you.”
“We don’t deplete the tree. We take only 2 percent of the nutrients,” Lamothe noted.
“Trees are my resource. I want them to be there for my grandson’s grandson,” he said.
A number of maple syrup events are planned in March, including the Maple Sugar Festival on March 9 at 38 Curtis Road in Washington from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cost is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for children. A pancake brunch will be held from 11 a.m to 2 p.m. There is separate price of $5 for the brunch.
Also on March 9, the Maple Festival in Plymouth will be held from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on the Green at 10 Park St. There is no charge for the event.
The Sharon Audubon Center will hold a MapleFest on March 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 325 Cornwall Bridge Road. It offers a demonstration of Native American and early colonial sugaring methods. The cost is $6 for adults and $4 for children.