Mmm, the sweet, sticky taste of real maple syrup on pancakes is delicious. Syrup is one of those foods where I wonder how people first thought to make it. An ever-so-slightly sweet water drips out of a nearby tree, and somebody thought to boil it.
[I have now learned that maple syrup and sugar was first created by natives in the Americas, and shown to Europeans in the 17th century.]The last weekend of March heralds the beginning of the end for sugaring season, so we headed up to New Hampshire to tour Ben’s Sugar Shack. Already, the day was in the upper 50’s, dangerously high for the sugar business.
- 40 gallons of sap yield 1 gallon of syrup
- Buckets on trees are unfeasible for large producers
- Maple sap production requires freezing nights, and cool days
When we arrived, there was steam billowing out of a small wooden building where the sap was boiling. Further on, a tent was erected, filled with various maple concoctions. Maple nuts, barbecue sauce, fudge, syrup, and creamees (with lots of samples).
Every 15 minutes, a tour of their sugaring operation would begin, so we hopped onto the next one. Our tour guide was great! Informative, funny, and answered any and all questions.
We started by a tree that had a bucket tapped into its side. This is the traditional method of collecting sap. Each year, a tap is bored into the tree, and a steady drip fills the bucket.
However, when the scale of production gets too big, this system would require full-time bucket-checkers to make sure they didn’t overflow. At Ben’s, less than 300 trees are tapped with buckets. That may sound like a lot until you realize that they own thousands of trees, found in a few different locations. Where we were, there were over 2,000 trees.
To keep up with the immense amount of intake, tubing is strung from tap to tap, tree to tree, ending up in large tanks. About 30 trees are hooked up right next to the road, where you can see the bubbles of sap dripping into the line.
The tubes are attached to a vacuum pump, but the pump does not pull the sap out of the tree itself. Sap exits the tree at the same rate it would if dripping into a bucket, sliding down a thin tube. Once it reaches the main line below, the vacuum system takes effect, compensating for a landscape that doesn’t always run downhill.
Collecting in a small shed, the sap joins with the sap from the large tubes running in from the 2,000-odd trees farther in the woods. The liquid poured into a glass-ended cylinder. When it reached half-full, the vacuum emptied the sap into the 1550 gallon tank nearby.
On a good day, each tree can produce one gallon of sap. With more than 2,000 trees on this line, the tank must be emptied before it overflows, spurting sap out the top.
The Vacuum System Shed 
The Sap Truck (left), and RO Machine (right)
A sap truck is brought over, and the sap is pumped out and over into the truck’s ample storage. When the sap is brought to the sugar shack, it’s first run through an RO (reverse osmosis) machine. This tech is part of the reason sugaring business can produce so much more syrup with more efficiency.
Osmosis is the process by which substances redistribute themselves until there is equal distribution throughout the substance. You know what, this short video does a much better job of it:
So Ben’s uses reverse osmosis to extract about 36 gallons of water out of every 40 gallons of sap. 40 gallons of sap is the approximate amount required to produce 1 gallon of syrup. Pretty amazing. Then the remaining 4 gallons are sent on through the evaporator, to boil off 3 more gallons of water.
Inside the sugar shack, the air smells of maple and oil, as they no longer burn wood to heat the evaporator. Before they switched to an oil-burning system, the business went through 60 cords of wood per year, which would likely fill a six-car garage. Keep in mind, the sugaring season is only 4-7 weeks long, so they’re burning wood rapidly.
We were offered maple syrup candy, which was a delicious surprise. I had actually read about this in Laura Ingalls’ Little House in the Big Woods. I had tried making it in the past, but didn’t realize that the key is bringing the syrup above its boiling point, to 232˚F. Then you pour the liquid over snow or ice, and it hardens into a soft taffy. A total sugar bomb, but absolutely scrumptious.
A row of bottles containing varying shades of syrup was on display. With the gradation system changing, they are now all considered Grade A, but with different titles, such as Grade A Dark, Robust Taste. Warmer days produce darker syrups with stronger flavors, and colder days yield golden syrups.
Because of weather, this year Ben’s has only made about half of their annual goal so far. Fortunately, many businesses put away extra syrup when demand was low last year.
And interesting factoid is that Canada has stockpiled hundreds of gallons of syrup to aid the market with if stock gets too low. This way, the price of syrup doesn’t skyrocket during a particularly bad season.
After the tour, we trouped into the tent to sample some delectable treats. We shared a maple creemee, and boy, was it tasty!
We then filed into the car and drove further up the road to check out the dairy farm that was advertised at the bottom of the street. I’m so glad we took the time to stop at Connolly Brothers Dairy Farm and Sugar House.
Three brothers run the farm together. Their main business is the cows, and then their farm store, with lots of side projects off of that. We were told that they don’t buy much, and if they wanted to eat their own bacon and eggs for breakfast all year, they could. All their houses were built by them, and now they’re milling boards to build a new farm store.
One brother makes ice cream from their milk. I tried the maple bacon flavor (with bacon from their farm), and it was great! Someone makes cheese for them, and they sell raw milk, maple soap, beef, bacon, eggs, and various homemade products.
In contrast to the huge operation taking place down the street, the farm has a small, wood-burning sugar shack that they run on the side. The family has to gather all the wood for the evaporator, which is in addition to the firewood for their own homes. The room smells better, and the smaller machine is made of cast iron metal, more akin to traditional methods.
After chatting with the family, petting a calf, and smacking on ice cream, we drove 15 minutes away to the adorable town of Petersborough, New Hampshire. As we were running out of daylight, we didn’t get out of the car, but enjoyed gazing at the cute window fronts and business names.
All-in-all, the day was very enjoyable. I encourage you to get out and explore sugaring next March. Apparently, it’s better to visit on the second or last weekends of Maple Month, since the third is rather insane with people.
Real Maple Syrup | New Hampshire Maple Syrup – Ben’s Sugar Shack
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Connolly Brothers Dairy Farm
Connolly Brothers Dairy Farm, Temple, NH. 1,988 likes · 163 talking about this · 634 were here. We are a family owned and operated Dairy Farm in Temple NH. We have a small farm store with great products