Audubon expects to make more maple syrup than ever

SHARON, Conn. — Sharon Audubon will hold its annual Maple­Fest on Saturday, March 16, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visitors will be able to watch as maple sap is collected from the trees and turned into delicious maple syrup.More efficient evaporatorScott Heth, Audubon’s director, said that the clear liquid sap is only about 3 percent sugar. An evaporation process is used to reduce the amount of liquid in the sap and increase the percentage of sugar, and turn it into amber-colored sugar. To improve that process, Audubon now has a new evaporator that Heth said “is much more efficient than the old one.” It was a gift of the Housatonic Audubon Society, the local Audubon chapter. Sharon Audubon is owned by the national Audubon organization.“Members of the local Audubon chapter recognize the importance of our educational programs in showing many people how maple syrup is made as well as in making syrup,” he said of the donation.Heth and Wendy Miller, Audubon’s education director in Sharon, said they usually draw enough sap to make about 60 gallons of syrup. With the new evaporator, they expect to produce 75 to 100 gallons this year.Audubon syrup will be available for purchase at the store in the main Audubon building.Heth said the maple syrup season has shifted over the last decades. “It used to go from Valentine’s Day until the end of March. Climate changes have shifted it so now it goes from Feb. 1 to late March.”The new evaporator is 2.5 by 8 feet. The old one was 2 by 6 feet. The larger evaporator will hold and boil more sap, more quickly. Made of stainless steel, the new evaporator will also stain less than the old one.Heth said the new evaporator, made in Canada, is basically custom made and cost about $16,000.Aside from the increased size of the evaporator, Heth said, “The arch [or fire box] is insulated and airtight, while the old one was not.” He explained this provides much more efficient burning of the wood used to keep the evaporator hot. There is also a blower, forcing an air draft to help the combustion of the wood, rather than just an open vent as in the old machinery. This causes the wood to burn more completely. The bottom line is that with the new evaporator system, Sharon Audubon will be able to produce more maple syrup more efficiently. They will be able to draw off small batches of maple syrup about every 45 minutes to one hour.More efficient tubingOn the Sharon Audubon property there are about 450 maple tree taps. As another aid to make syrup production more efficient, new tubing is being used to collect the sap. The new tubing is more resistant to ultra violet light, which provides for a better quality sap and increased production. Heth said the new tubing should last about 10 years, much longer than the previous tubing that was used.Another production enhancement is a small vacuum pump on one line of tubing. A line of tubing collects sap from many different trees and delivers it to a collection vat. The vacuum pump moves sap out of the collecting tubes more efficiently.Heth said there is about a mile of main-line tubing plus another two miles of lateral lines at Sharon Audubon. These carry the sap to three collection points. A tractor hauls a gathering tank to these three collection points to collect the sap. The gathering tanks are taken to the sugar shack, where the sap is drained into a holding tank.On one inside wall of the sugar shack are posters illustrating the process of making maple syrup. One poster says that “40” is the magic number in maple sugaring: 40 gallons of sap equals 1 gallon of maple syrup; to collect sap, daytime temperatures must be 40 degrees Fahrenheit; and a tree must be 40 years old and at least 10 inches in diameter before it can be tapped.The MapleFest entrance fee is $5 per adult and $3 per child. Fresh syrup will be sold in the Sharon Audubon Center Nature Store while supplies last. Depending on sap flow, the sugar shack should be open each weekend in March for visitors. Call ahead to see if Audubon staff will be boiling sap. Volunteers are also always needed to help make syrup.For more information, call 860-364-0520.

Latest News

All are welcome at The Mahaiwe

Paquito D’Rivera performs at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington on April 5.

Geandy Pavon

Natalia Bernal is the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center’s education and community engagement manager and is, in her own words, “the one who makes sure that Mahaiwe events are accessible to all.”

The Mahaiwe’s community engagement program is rooted in the belief that the performing arts should be for everyone. “We are committed to establishing and growing partnerships with neighboring community and arts organizations to develop pathways for overcoming social and practical barriers,” Bernal explained. “Immigrants, people of color, communities with low income, those who have traditionally been underserved in the performing arts, should feel welcomed at the Mahaiwe.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Living with the things you love:
a conversation with Mary Randolph Carter
Mary Randolph Carter teaches us to surround ourselves with what matters to live happily ever after.
Carter Berg

There is magic in a home filled with the things we love, and Mary Randolph Carter, affectionately known as “Carter,” has spent a lifetime embracing that magic. Her latest book, “Live with the Things You Love … and You’ll Live Happily Ever After,” is about storytelling, joy, and honoring life’s poetry through the objects we keep.

“This is my tenth book,” Carter said. “At the root of each is my love of collecting, the thrill of the hunt, and living surrounded by things that conjure up family, friends, and memories.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Beloved classic film ‘The Red Shoes’ comes to the big screen for Triplex benefit
Provided

On Saturday, April 5, at 3 p.m., The Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington and Jacob’s Pillow, the dance festival in Becket, Massachusetts, are presenting a special benefit screening of the cinematic masterpiece, “The Red Shoes,” followed by a discussion and Q&A. Featuring guest speakers Norton Owen, director of preservation at Jacob’s Pillow, and dance historian Lynn Garafola, the event is a fundraiser for The Triplex.

“We’re pitching in, as it were, because we like to help our neighbors,” said Norton. “They (The Triplex) approached us with the idea, wanting some input if they were going to do a dance film. I thought of Lynn as the perfect person also to include in this because of her knowledge of The Ballets Russes and the book that she wrote about Diaghilev. There is so much in this film, even though it’s fictional, that derives from the Ballets Russes.” Garafola, the leading expert on the Ballets Russes under Serge Diaghilev, 1909–1929, the most influential company in twentieth-century theatrical dance, said, “We see glimpses of that Russian émigré tradition, performances we don’t see much of today. The film captures the artifice of ballet, from the behind-the-scenes world of dressers and conductors to the sheer passion of the audience.”

Keep ReadingShow less