This article was also featured in our February 23, 2022 issue of Now in Nature.

For a short time each year, our sugar house is home to sweet smells, sticky syrup, and a monster. A creature with flaming teeth, a hot temper, and an unrelenting appetite for wood.

It's the roaring fire inside the evaporator that we use to transform sap into syrup.

Heat from fire is a key part in the maple process, and we need an enormous supply of food to feed the beast.

Collected from fallen or hazardous trees on our property throughout the year, wood is gathered, cut, split, and stacked to dry for maple season. A woodshed the size of a small house is filled to bursting with firewood and in just six-weeks the maple-making monster can devour it all.

Fiery heat boils the sap, removing water and concentrating the sugar, leaving us with a tasty treat.

Come see the creature in action before our season ends and it sleeps for another year.