Maple Sugaring Report

Dave has completed the sugaring run and his report out on the feasibility of the project. Here are his cheerful, optimistic and detailed thoughts.

Project: A preliminary study to determine the viability of an annual student and staff maple sugaring operation as an educational tool for the New Hampton School by running a small scale maple operation on Burleigh Mountain.

The figures from this year:

• 16 taps in 9 maple trees
• Over 120 gallons of syrup boiled
• Syrup yield: about 3 gallons of varying quality
• Help from 12 NHS and local community members

Is maple sugaring is possible with tree resources available on the New Hampton campus (Burleigh Mountain maple trees were all logged off ten years ago)

• Yes! 50-60 taps on campus (excluding in front of Academic Row)
• Another 100-150 taps readily available in the village
• 20-50 taps on Burleigh Mntn.

Quantity of sap available

• ~2000 gal
• would make 50 gal of syrup
• could sell for $3000

Amount of fire wood needed to boil sap to syrup

• 4 cords
• Easily taken from Burleigh Forest

Feasibility of student involvement

• See below

Viability of existing sap boiler system

• Not viable for larger operation

Potential future financial considerations

• -$3000 for initial start up
• -$500 per year following
• +$3000 gross
• +$2500 per year

Institutional barriers and opportunities

• Insurance coverage
• Student involvement (see below)
• Tie in to “Local Application”

Potential detrimental and unanticipated side effects of the project to school property, personnel, image and campus attractiveness

• As long as the trees tapped are in good health, they can handle being tapped with no problem.
• The risk is that personnel running the project will not get much sleep in March because the run is so good!
• If you like the look of traditional New England maple buckets, then there is no image/attractiveness risk.
  
• Potential risk of students tampering with sap
  

Student Involvement Opportunities (and barriers):

• Students would be involved with a Maple sugaring project through academic classes, (the proposed) Experiential Week, and as an SLP Independent Study.
• Biology/Ecology: Opportunities for curricular crossover in ecology and biology who could participate and study the biological response of maple trees to the changing seasons.
• Ecology: Ecology students could also participate by tracking the dates of the run each year, quantity of sap, and which trees are producing most. This data could then be used to help track the effects of Global Warming right here in New Hampton.
• Economics (Math IV): Students could participate in calculating potential profit/losses, develop a marketing plan that takes into account the schools mission, and even participate in getting the syrup onto the shelves of local merchants.
• Essential Exploration Week (a project week)
• At the end of spring vacation, students can participate in various aspects of the maple sugaring process, and research the larger industry and the changes it is going through
• SLP:
• A student could take leadership and ownership in setting up and operating a maple sugaring operation culminating in educational service to the public on NH “Sugar Shack Open House” in which neighbors can visit the operation
• Barriers: The big risk with sugaring is that much of the actual run takes place over the spring vacation. This would necessitate that an SLP student be a day student so he or she could help over the break. Usually, however, the run overlaps with school after the break, which makes the eWeek idea feasible. Ecology and Bio students would certainly have trouble tracking data if the run only happened over the break.

I wish I was there!

I missed the big boil down yesterday and today! Mostly that is - I tagged in for a few hours when Dave needed to step away.

Among other folks Katka and her daughter helped out with the whole process and sent along some great pictures. Thanks for that!

I'm a little bummed out that I haven't been able to help as much as I would like to. I love this project and really want to see it successful - or at least give it the full shot it deserves!

Dave reported this evening that he got more than a gallon of syrup from this last boiling - well done! I would like to increase our boiling capacity somehow. This amount of syrup took him, what - 20 hours?

I'm looking forward to any pics Dave can get up of his reported 'liquid gold!'

Pancakes tomorow?

First Week of Sugaring: A Report

So a week and a half ago Clara and Caren and I tapped some trees



9 trees in all, 16 taps total.

We collected over the course of the week and boiled last friday (see the video below).

She's a boilin!




It started to snow. We ended up getting a foot!



We started with about 30 gal of sap total and ended up with a half gallon of syrup.


The next morning, we had to have a pancake party. When you have people over in New Hampshire in winter, you end up with a lot of boots!


Also, Clara is cuter than most things I've encountered.


Deltas:
* We need more light up there especially when it's time to finish the syrup (it is a somewhat delicate process).
* We're going to boil the sap at a deeper level in the main pan for the next boil hoping to increase the speed of the evaporation.
*Need a rig with more surface area.

Taps are in!

Dave was able to tap for the first time yesterday! Sorry I don't have any pictures, I was too busy running around with Olivia to take any today. But we did collect a little sap though the temps didn't rise much above freezing today.

Right now the taps are just around Caswell and are pretty out of the way. We are keeping the taps out of sight as much as possible since we've been asked to minimize the visual impact of the project.

The funny thing is that we might also get a newspaper article written about the project for the Concord Monitor. We're holding off on tapping the trees by Russell until we can get some students involved and a photographer from the Monitor up. So wait, which is it - is it visually unattractive, or photoworthy? Funny! I want to really thank Peter for his work on this already and on the upcoming article in the Hamptonia on the JUA!

Eric B. is interested in the project next year for his SLP so we're hoping he can help tap some trees when the photographer from the Monitor comes out.

Weather for the next few days look good for us, cold nights and warm days. Perfect! Stay tuned for more updates and pics.

Maple Sugaring Feasibility Study

We just got the go ahead for some maple sugaring!

The Maple Sugaring Feasibility Study is a preliminary study to determine the viability of an annual student and staff maple sugaring operation as an educational tool for the New Hampton School. Once the study is carried out a report on the results of the study will be duly prepared addressing the technical and curricular viability of the project.

Study Parameters
Experiential Learning will conduct a small scale boiling run to assess the
logistical and curricular feasibility of this project. This will involve,

• Drilling small holes in five to ten trees
• Inserting ten to twenty taps into the trees
• Hanging traditional metal buckets with lids on these trees for two to three weeks
• Transporting sap to Burleigh Mountain by truck and sled
• Boiling sap to syrup by wood fire (enclosed in wood stove) approximately five to seven times during the run

I've posted the entire feasibility study proposal at our educator resource page.