Sugaring Off a Rite of Spring

When the Sap Flows

By: Martha Bentley - Apr 01, 2010

All over the Berkshires along the roads and in the woods there are buckets attached to maple trees. The sap is then boiled down to make liquid gold.

You know if you every bought even a small jug of pure maple syrup. It comes in several grades.

Along the Mohawk Trail we visited a sugar house and watched the large scale operation. Long lengths of split wood were fed in to make the fire under the vat of sap. Much of it escaped as vapor billowing out of a large gap in the roof.

Now and then an attendant drew off a sample for testing. It takes a lot of sap to boil down as concentrated syrup.

There is a narrow window of time when the sap flows sure sign of spring.

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