Date: Fri 13-Mar-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-maple-syrup-Goodrich

Full Text:

Discovering The Sweet Secret Of Maple Trees

(with cuts)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

For some folks, maple syrup season evokes rich memories of standing around a

bonfire, warming your hands, and occasionally stirring a pot as the endless

gallons of sap slowly thicken into syrup.

For children at Head O' Meadow, the experience of maple syruping, with the

help of Albert Goodrich of Boggs Hill Road, had the feel of a new and exciting

adventure.

The children were full of questions about everything from "How do you know you

have the right type of tree?" to "How long do you have to boil it?"

Although the maple syrup season was definitely waning, being much earlier than

usual this year, Mr Goodrich still had plenty to show the children.

A minute or so after drilling the tree and explaining to the children that he

didn't expect the sap to be flowing much, one child raised his hand excitedly

and exclaimed, "I don't have a question, but look! The sap started to come

out!"

Everyone looked and the boy was right. A few drops were trickling down the

trunk of the old maple.

Mr Goodrich hammered in the tap to catch and divert the trickle of sap into a

system of tubes running into a bucket.

When not much more than a dribble appeared, one child asked, "Do they ever

clog up?"

Mr Goodrich explained that he has never had that trouble, but the temperature

wasn't right for a good sap flow.

He said that "you need warm days to make the sap rise up from the ground and

freezing cold nights to make it fall back down in the ground, so we can catch

it while it's moving."

Mr Goodrich explained that not all sap is worth keeping. He throws out sap

that is only one percent sugar.

He brought out a sheet with a hundred dots on it, and asked the children how

many dots would be one percent.

Lots of hands went up, and in a moment, the children understood that if the

sap is 99 percent water, it would take a lot of sap to make even one little

jug of syrup.

Using a hydrometer, which looked a bit like a thermometer, Mr Goodrich found

that the sap he had collected had a sugar level of two percent, which was

fine.

He came in closer to the group of children gathered around the tree and

pointed to a huge maple at the head of the driveway to Head O' Meadow School.

He told them that this tree gave sap that was an amazing three percent sugar.

The children seemed pleased that their tree was so sweet.

Then the third graders moved behind the house and encircled the pots of

boiling sap.

The children wanted to know how long it took to boil the sap down to syrup.

Mr Goodrich explained that it takes a long time, but "you just have to watch

it. When it sheets off a spatula instead of dripping, it's getting close, or

when a candy thermometer reaches 215 degrees, it's almost ready."

He has kept the fire going most of the week adding sap, filtering syrup and

then doing a final boil-down inside, until he has processed the week's bounty.

Mary Mitchell, close friend of Mr Goodrich and co-author of several books with

him ( Newtown Trails Book and Touring Newtown's Past ) came out with a tray of

ice cream and poured fresh homemade maple syrup on it, which the children

heartily enjoyed.

Karen Violette, third grade teacher, said this was the first year the third

graders had done this, and it was wonderful.