Maple Sap
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The weekend of March 23 through March 25, 2007 was Maple Open House Weekend in Vermont. I visited the Wilwood Farm Sugarhouse in East Charleston, Vermont for these photos.
Approximately 90% of the sap of the maple tree is water. It takes approximately 40 gal (151 liters) of sap to make 1 gal (3.78 liters) of syrup. It takes a lot of energy to boil off the water in the sap. Below, you can see the steam from the evaporator in the sugar house.
The excess steam rises up this vent to the roof.
The vent opens to the rafters above. Sugar houses have a distinct roof structure that allows the steam to escape to the outdoors. The roof can be seen in the last photo.
In order to boil off the water from the sap, the wood stove is filled every 10 minutes with wood.
On the opposite end of the evaporator from the stove is a bucket (below) that captures even more pure, clean water that empties from the evaporator:
Here is the Wilwood Farm sugar house with its distinct roof. The steam was blowing to the ground on the opposite side of the house at the moment this photo was taken. When you drive in Vermont in March you quickly learn to identify where the sugar houses are making syrup from the clouds of steam pouring out of the roof vents. (The dog below is named Nikki.)
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You always have the most interesting pictures and stories! I would love to visit Vermont...especially if syrup is involved!
ReplyDeleteOh I so enjoyed that little 'lesson'!!! I am a Floridian and am of the mindset that everyone lives as we do (giggle)...I am also a very visual person so the photos were great!!! BTW...I too spent the other day photographing the ducks along our river...I am sure they will make their way into a blog post soon ;)
ReplyDeletei seen a great documentary a long time ago about making maple syrup, maybe it was at this same place in Vermont!
ReplyDeletethanks for visiting us for our last hunt :)
great take on today's theme. I love maple syrup!!;) Thanks for stopping by Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeletemmmm maple syrup.... you've inspired me to go the sugar bush, if the season's not over that is.... I read somewhere that they discovered a bacteria that converts maple sap into a plastic like polymer that is completely bio-degradable... another use for our mighty maple tree. Happy hunting :)
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful photo!
ReplyDeleteI see so many beautiful sites on this photo hunt! Thanks!
happy weekend
L
Terrific series of photos! :) Thanks for sharing the maple syrup story. My humans say they've been to lots of maple sugar farms back in CAnada.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting ! I never thought about how they produce marple sirupn I only eat it with pleasure on pancakes ! I ate this for the first time when I was in the States in 1971, I just wrote about that today in my writer cramps !
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting. I'd never really thought about the syrup being processed before. Thanks for letting us all know!
ReplyDeleteThat was so interesting...thank you! And thank you for visiting Pollywog Creek. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to visit Vermont, stay in a B&B and take a tour of a sugar house. Great picture!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this very interesting photo and information about Maple Sap. It's nice to learn something new. Take care!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea it was so complicated to make maple syrup! I guess I just imagined poking a tap into a tree, and there you have it! I loved the photo of the special roof vents. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe thought there would be some interesting entries this week, and this was one of them. Great pictures and great info.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting us.
Neat photo, and I learned something too! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteVery informative and most interesting! Great photos.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great lesson. Do they ever capture the steam for something else? This is a great set of pictures for today's theme. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I am almost out of syrup, so the sugar season came at the right time! We go through a gallon a year, the two of us.
ReplyDeleteoh wow - that must be so much fun to watch in person!
ReplyDeleteWe have "sugaring" going on in our area right now too. The sugar house is about 10 miles from my house. It's amazing to see how the whole process takes place. Great photo and great take on the theme :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome take on today theme! Thanks for visiting my blog today.
ReplyDeleteTotally different from eveybody else. Ummmm maple syrup. Good picture.
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting how maple syrup is made. I had no idea so much water was in it when it comes out of the tree. Thanks for sharing this and for stopping by. Have a nice weekend.
ReplyDeleteMmm ... Syrup. Charmee and I like syrup very much, but Mom doesn't like it when we sneak a lick or two off of her pancakes or waffle. If we lived in Vermont, we'd have serious weight problems as we'd be slurpin' as much syrup as we possibly could. Too bad Temptations® don't come in maple syrup flavor.
ReplyDeleteDMM
PeeSsss: Thanks for visitin' my blog today!
Interesting post, like a mini documentary. :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE maple syrup. I used to go to a maple syrup festival near my hometown when growing up. Thanks for the great memories. :-)
ReplyDeleteWow, that is so neat! Very interesting, and new knowledge for us. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by.
I can't believe I forgot Photohunt. Like I don't have any water pictures :).
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing that Maple trees can give up all that volume and survive.
Very cool, I learned some new things today!
ReplyDeletenice twist to the topic. Thanks for the pics and lesson
ReplyDeleteAn interesting shot for the theme.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting.
:)
Well that was interesting to see. Thanks for the maple syrup lesson.
ReplyDeleteHave a great Sunday!
Wow! Very interesting, thanks for sharing the photos and information about the process of making syrup.
ReplyDeleteMaple syrup isn't something we use a lot in Finland. It's a familiar product, but I never gave it any thought how it's made! So this was really interesting - thank you!
ReplyDeleteAlso thank you for visiting me and leaving the very kind words behind you :)
That was a great series and fun take on the theme. thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving me the comment, or I would have missed your photos.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your day
oh WOW.. What a great series of photos, and on such a great subject.. Syrup... So good...
ReplyDeleteThe photos a great and the accompanying story about it all is fantastic and very interesting.
Thank you for sharing these!
Very neat contribution for this week's theme of water :)...Wow, is sure takes a lot of sap to make 1 gal of syrup...
ReplyDeleteHave a great Sunday evening...
I love learing new things. Especially when it accompanies beautiful photos!
ReplyDeleteHey this is so neat, and very unique... Thank you for the background on it,,,and for stopping by my place.
ReplyDeleteHave a great rest of the weekend!!
Vermont is so interesting! Thanks for the photos and commentary.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a unique take on the theme! Great photos, and an interesting process.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! Fun picture for this theme!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog the other day. We watched a TV show on making maple syrup, interesting to learn about different things. Loved your take on water this week.
ReplyDeleteand the steam even smells good! Funny, I went to a sugar house in Mason NH on Saturday ;-)
ReplyDelete