Maplerama, The Vermont Sugaring Event of the Year

by Sherry Russell

* I've updated some of these figures to represent our current status as of 03/01/09 R.Bell  / Webmaster

Paradise Farm
One stop for the Maplerama tour was at Paradise Farm Sugarhouse where Jeff Doyle, Lisa Hamilton and Lisa’s son, John Cole, are the primary work force. Doyle gave his guests an overview of his operation, while Lisa talked about their retail store on Route 9 in West Brattleboro, where they sell all the syrup they produce.
The visitors were most fascinated by the 2,500 gallon underground storage tank Doyle installed two years ago. He put a submersible pump inside it, then epoxied the entire inside of the tank with a food grade epoxy, made for use on floors in food service businesses.
Having underground storage enables Doyle to keep sap at an even 40-degree temperature, even when night time brings freezing or day time hits hotter temperatures. “I don’t have to worry about it freezing at night,” Doyle said, which alleviates some of the stress during sugaring time.
He will burn about 40 cords of softwood per season. Doyle pointed out that he put an alarm system in that alerts him if the overhead tank feeding the evaporator goes down below half full. He constructed the store and sugarhouse mainly from logs on the property, and did the plumbing for the system.
This is their fourth season (7th) using this sugarhouse, though Doyle has been sugaring for the past 20 years. They have 1,500 taps (3,600) on both buckets and pipeline, half on their own land and half that are leased, and some comes from as much as ten miles away. Doyle said he hopes to get up to 2,500 taps eventually, by improving his own 55 acre stand and leasing more taps.
The family opened a retail store at the same time they built the attached sugarhouse, and Lisa said business has been very strong. She said customers come from all across the U.S. and have come from countries including England, Scotland, China and Japan. “It has been a very good experience,” she said. “The people are very nice.”
She also makes donuts and pies that sell very well. The store is open every day in foliage season, and six days the rest of the year. They sell all of their syrup from the store, which they package mostly in plastic and some in metal and glass. ( We do not sell in Tins & Metal Cans anymore due to the fact the containers have a habit of rusting on the outside of the cans which tends to dissuade customers from buying the product. )
Customers are encouraged to step into the attached room and see the syrup being made, though Lisa said that can be stressful, as they have to watch out for their visitors’ safety. Still, they are committed to the role of educating the public about sugaring.
“We have a system that is as basic as you can get, it’s very traditional,” she said. Doyle said he was resistant to using an RO, (Reverse Osmosis) for example, as it would interfere with their educational mission.
“We want people to see how we do it, see us making it,” Lisa said. “Even some Vermonters who come here don’t know where sap comes from, what time of year we sugar, or why you get different grades of syrup. They see four pans and think each pan is for a different grade.”