June (2014)
May (2014)
April (2014)
March (2014)
3/25/2014
George's Gift
3/14/2014
Pick Yourself
February (2014)
December (2013)
12/27/2013
Holiday Card
12/4/2013
Good Causes
12/2/2013
Frozen Assets
November (2013)
11/16/2013
Sally B.
11/10/2013
End Game
October (2013)
September (2013)
9/21/2013
Self Study
Sweet Steam
4/1/2003

Maple Sugaring is one of the most popular, and enduring projects offered on campus. While venerable sugar maples stand with buckets at the heart of Proctor along North Street, the future can be seen east of the Blackwater Ski Area, where forestry and woods team programs have been cultivating a major "sugarbush" by thinning the woods of competing species.

This type of planned land use management guarantees many decades of increased sap product, as these young maples mature and grow. Last week's warm nighttime temperatures delayed the sap run, but plenty of other tasks needed attention: tapping trees, chopping hardwoods for the evaporater stove, and continuing the sugarbush expansion with selective cutting. On Friday, at last, enough sap ran for a boil.

When sap had been reduced to syrup, the Day Care kids came over to make maple candy in the snow. Could anything be more fun?

Land Use Manager David Pilla demonstrates new technology in "gathering."
Checking the flow on Friday. At last!
Then there's the old fashioned method.
In front of the sugar house, Sean splits rock maple for the fire.
A final step: filtering.
Maple candy on a stick.
There was a field trip to Vermont, too.