400 Gallons of Maple Syrup

Those at the NMH Farm were celebrating a record-breaking week of maple syrup production on Friday, even as they continued to cook through gallons of sap.

Three days before, a crew of NMH staff, workjob students, and alumni volunteers produced 115 gallons of maple syrup, smashing the previous one-day production record of 95 gallons.

Farm Program Director Richard Odman said that the successful start to the season is partly due to a good run of maple sap in the past week. He said the farm’s reverse osmosis equipment had also helped speed production. The equipment, which resembles doorless refridgerator, removes up to 60 percent of the water, Odman said. As a result, the farm is able to cook a concentrated version of sap, saving both time and the wood that is used in the sugar house as fuel. The machine is run by Andrew Wolkoff ’82, who volunteers his time during sugaring season.

This year, alumna Mary Peck Castle ’82 also stepped in to donate a new arch – a stove-part that the hot maple syrup pans sit on – and a new stainless steel stack, which vents wood smoke out of the sugar house.

“I wanted the farm to be able to do what they wanted to do,” Castle said on Friday as she paced back and forth skimming foam from the cooking syrup. “I love the farm.”

Odman said that in eight days, the farm had gone from 13 gallons of syrup to several hundred. He expected the total at the end of Friday to top 400 gallons. NMH Archivist Peter Weis '78 donated two pump vacuum systems that had helped greatly during the sap collection, Odman said. Working in crews of seven, 21 workjob students had collected 14,000 gallons of sap over March break.

Questions or comments? Please contact Rachael Hanley, writer and social media manager at NMH, or Jessica Lindsey, writer and video production coordinator.