Upwards of 85 people braved cold, misty weather on Sunday, March 22, for the pleasure of being wrapped in woodsmoke and maple-scented steam steam—an annual ritual at the Great Mountain Forest and other Norfolk sugar houses. Based on decidedly anecdotal observations, many were first timers. Property manager Russell Russ and forester Kate Regan-Loomis provided useful running commentary while managing the evaporator and stoking the fire. Russ described the season as “a strange one,” with a late start and uneven conditions. Russ said approximately 400 gallons of sap were collected for the open house from taps in 300 trees. The good news is that GMF expects to continue boiling sap, at least through the beginning of April, and that there’s still syrup available for purchase.

Russell Russ checks the sugar concentration of boiling sap to determine whether it is ready to be drawn out of the evaporator. Sap starts at 2 percent sugar and “becomes” maple syrup at 66 percent. Forrester Kate Regan-Loomis fed the evaporator fire on a regular basis with wood harvested from GMF, breaking to show visitors samples of sap at different concentrations. As she noted, “the trees determine the color of the syrup.” At right, syrup and sap samples are displayed in the GMF sugar house.