Maple Sugar Lines

"There’s an art to tapping." John Kenney, whose family produces 6% of New Hampshire’s yearly maple syrup harvest, informed us of this truth when he stopped by to help us with our sugar maple lines yesterday. He’s only twenty-eight, but he knows pretty much all there is to know about how to make good syrup – he’s done it his whole life. John and his family have been neighbors and friends of Glen Brook for years, and the common drive to produce good work has led to a continual exchange of favors and helping hands. So, when John pulled up to help the three of us amateur maple syrup harvesters, we all breathed sighs of relief.

Glen Brook established a maple sugaring program last year. We acquired an evaporator, constructed lines to connect series of sugar maple trees on our property, and developed an educational program that culminated in a maple sugaring weekend for families. Our efforts resulted in forty gallons of pure, New Hampshire maple syrup and amazing pancakes. Although I’ve just started at Glen Brook this month, I’m excited to join the rest of the staff in continuing the program and shooting for eighty gallons of syrup this season. We’re all poised to get our hands sticky.

The traditional image of maple sugaring seems to consist of a bucket hanging on a tree by a metal tap with a pitched cover to keep out snow, rain and debris. Although we’ll keep this endearing, New England image alive by hanging buckets on taps on a few trees, the bulk of our effort will incorporate rubber tubing. The rubber tubing goes from tree to tree – really from tap to tap, since some trees can have two or three taps – and runs from one tree, at the top of a hill or grade, down along a series of trees to a barrel at the bottom of the hill. As the trees seep sap, gravity pulls the liquid down to the barrels. Then, we transfer the sap to two hundred-gallon vats in our sugar house above the evaporator.

John showed up as we were trying to set up one of our lines. Although we were having a great time, our lack of experience couldn’t have been more obvious. You want the lines to be taut so that the sap flows smoothly and doesn’t get stuck in a droopy section of the tubing, where it will sour. Our first attempts consisted of tying the lines to each sugar maple using twine. We couldn’t get the line taut and the taps weren’t lining up with the trees – there was too much slack in the line. Our neighbor carried a broad smile with him as he stepped out of his pickup and met us under the tree where we were working. It was the type of smile you get when you know that the person sees exactly what’s wrong with your work and knows that you have no idea what you’re doing. Thankfully, John patiently showed us the art of tapping.

We stopped using twine and, instead, stretched out the lines from tap to tap until they were taut and then wove the line between the trees so that the tension held. Sometimes the taps on the line did not fall in sync with the tree it belonged to, so we simply cut the line, adjusted its length, and reassembled it using plastic connectors. The only downside to this was that, once you cut the line, you have to chew on the end so that it will stretch and fit onto the connector. The plastic line tasted awful, but thinking about the syrup to come made it bearable. We got the job done, and the line looks perfect.

We were able to hang two more of our five lines yesterday. After we finish setting up the rest we’ll wait until the temperature gets consistently above forty degrees during the day – an indication that the trees are waking for the spring and their sap is flowing. We’ll see how this pans out. Hopefully John will be by again.

Photographs by D. Foster