Exploring the Marvels of Middlebury's Maple Syrup Tradition

Author: Ryan Gamble

Warmer temperatures mean sap is flowing in Vermont's trees and the maple syrup season, which will last well into April, is underway. "You never know how good the season will be," said Sheila Masterson of the Addison County Maple Sugarmakers' Association, "As long as there are warm days coupled with below-freezing nights, the sap will flow, but if this doesn't continue, the season might get cut short."
While the yield from year to year is unpredictable, Vermont has an ideal climate for good sap flow. As the largest producer of maple syrup in the United States, Vermont produced 37 percent of the total U.S. crop in 2000. Addison County is the second largest maple syrup producer in Vermont, with farms in Middlebury, Cornwall, Ripton, Weybridge and 12 other areas.
According to Lucille Williams, 18.5 gallons ran on the 34-year-old farm last Sunday night. A good night on her farm will yield about 50 gallons. The sap is hauled in buckets to the Williams sugarhouse where it is boiled in an evaporator, a delicate process that transforms the sap into maple syrup. Boiling sap at too high a temperature or for too long can cause crystallization, while boiling at too low a temperature can cause fermentation. Since so much of the sap's water is evaporated in the process, it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce just one gallon of maple syrup. This amount is the yield from three to four trees throughout the entire season.
Vermont maple syrup is an important and often romanticized industry. It is also one of the state's oldest industries. Vermont was the first state to impose a maple grading law, classifying different types of maple syrup according to their color, texture, and flavor. State law also requires that syrup be free of preservatives or other additives. In Orwell, Ledge Haven Farms advertises that their syrup is "one of Nature's purest and sweetest products." Maple Grove's Farms in St. Johnsbury features an authentic Maple Museum, with educational exhibits on the process of maple syrup production. Vermont Maple Sugar Makers' Association markets Vermont's "syrup making know-how, which has been handed down from generation to generation."
In preparing for the celebration of the town of Dummerston's 250th anniversary, the town's Historical Society recently published an article asserting that the "first maple sugar made by white men" came from a tree tapped 159 years ago on a farm in Dummerston. While some dispute the validity of Dummerston's claim, tapping maple trees was, at any rate, originally learned from Native Americans who had the idea centuries before.
The editor of The Brattleboro Reformer wrote of the industry, "Vermont's maple trees don't draw their unique sap just from the air and soil of this state: they draw some of it from the history, drama and exhilarating peculiarities of people, young and old, know as Vermonters."
Whatever the source of intrigue, the industry has attracted a good deal of tourism, which has had a positive impact on maple marketing. Tourists first caught a glimpse of the maple industry in 1953, when Martin Brown of Wilmington decided to consolidate Beaver Brook Farm's three evaporators into one large sugarhouse. He built the structure right at the junction of Routes 8 and 9 in South Wilmington and incorporated a "spectators' gallery" where visitors could watch the production process. The farm was Vermont's largest maple syrup producer at the time, and was able to sell 20 percent of each year's production right at the new house. Currently, Vermont Maple advertises sugarhouses that are open to the public all over the state. "A trip to Vermont wouldn't be complete without visiting one of our many sugarhouses open to the public," it states.
While the production process makes maple syrup an expensive commodity - each pint sells for around eight dollars - maple products are currently shipped to countries all over the world. Syrups bought at the store, such as Aunt Jamima's, typically contain mostly corn syrup and only two percent maple syrup. Pure maple syrup has a high degree of nutritional value, containing the same calcium content as whole milk and many vitamins, including B2, B5, B6, niacin, biotin, and folic acid and several amino acids.
While maple syrup is often poured on pancakes, waffles, French toast and ice cream, some of the more traditional recipes include maple snow and ragamuffins. To make maple snow, syrup is first heated to about 234 degrees Fahrenheit and then poured in ribbons over packed snow. Raga muffins are made by baking one inch of syrup under a cinnamon, apples and biscuit dough. There are countless other traditional recipes that all include Vermont's most prized product, which has become over the year an integral part of the state's history. As written in The Brattleboro Reformer, "No other state in the union can take a mixture of ornery, stubborn and frugal characters and extract from that mixture a state product so bountiful in its sweetness as is pure Vermont maple syrup."