About Six Tree Farm

  In February of 2013 I was driving around, as a UPS driver, talking with people about living in Vermont and having a few maple trees in my yard. The more I talked about it the easer it seemed to just tap them and see what happens.

  Saturday morning I went to the internet to see what size trees I could tap and if I could put multiple taps in one tree. Then a trip to Agway, the local feed store, to buy some plastic taps, tubing by the foot to reach 5-gallon buckets at the base of the trees and buckets. I ended up with 16 taps. This was already more than I've ever spent on maple syrup.

  Sunday morning, I went out to find a total of 20 gallons of sap! Off to my friend's house to borrow a turkey frier he used for brewing beer. I spent all day boiling that down.

Later in the afternoon my neighbor Barb came over. She was very excited to see the buckets out and asked how it was going. "Not good. I've spent all day and 20$ in propane turning 20 gallons of sap into 10 gallons of moderately sweet water." "Yup... I've got a little 2' x 3' wood fired evaporator in my garden shed you can borrow."

  She previously lived in the sticks of Vermont, with her husband, whom had made syrup every year. He had sadly passed away from a heart attack, which he had, while standing over the same evaporator. She new he would appreciate it getting some use.

  I don't burn wood so I ask several of my friends if they could bring some over the next weekend for a sugar'n party. We boiled all weekend. It was a great time. We had fun while comparing it to:

  • Watching grass grow
  • Watching paint dry
  • Or just plain old watching water boiling

  Another neighbor Margret-Dale came by to check on the progress. I explained we were out of wood and the season was done. She motioned to the cedar stockade fence that was between my driveway and her backyard. "We planned on replacing that this spring. If you want to burn it?" The season continued...

  In March while standing over the evaporator boiling, I found out my friends had their first son. There is a lot of time to think while sugar'n'. So, I went down to the Brown and Robert Hardware Store and got little 4oz mason jars. That night I canned up 18 jars from what I made that day. I gave them to him so he could have maple syrup that was made on his actual day of birth, on his birthday, every year till he is 18.

  We ended up making 6 gallons of syrup that year and had to stop because we ran out of fence.