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2016 Sugarin’ Season in Guilford!

Pure Connecticut Maple Syrup- Stop (!!) when you see this sign

Guilford, CT has been an agricultural community for more than 375 years.  One of the land’s best products is being produced now.

A week ago we had the frigid weather that allowed me to capture the Meetinghouse Hill churches in North Guilford.  At this time of the year one assumes there is going to be maple sap running, collected and boiled for one of the best seasonally produced delicacies anywhere!!!  Nights below freezing and days above… a general rule of thumb… produce the sap that is collected from trees in tubing or with buckets.

We headed North of Route 80 and back into North Guilford to see what was happening with Buster Scranton at Maple Grove Farm.  Buster is a life-long producer of syrup.  Take a look at a bit of his story here. Walking in to his big sugar house, we became part of a small group of adults and young kids, all watching Buster scurry from task to task.  He has some new equipment this year that should allow him to boil off the water much faster (about 40 gallons of syrup for every 1 gallon of finished syrup) so that he go to sleep earlier than 3 or 4 AM on the nights he is boiling!! Keeping the syrup level down with magic drops, testing the specific gravity with his hydrometer, stoking the fire every 8 minutes with more slab wood from Peter Marlowe’s saw mill, and filtering the syrup, etc., etc., etc is a very busy process.

Buster Scranton’s Maple Grove Farm – Sugar house
The evaporator

Boiling along
Testing the specific gravity

More checking as the syrup leaves the evaporator

Buster also urged us to go down to The Dudley Farm and see their smaller operation.  After buying some of his incredible popping corn (syrup to be purchased at another date), we headed to our next stop.

Buster Scranton's special popcorn - all one needs is a microwave oven and a paper bag
Buster Scranton’s special popcorn – all one needs is a microwave oven and a paper bag

If you don’t know about Guilford’s Dudley Farm, definitely follow the hyperlink to learn more. George Page and his crew of adults and kids were collecting from 25 buckets and boiling under cover in a fashion that my father did and many folks still do to produce the same nectar.  Theirs is not a commercial operation but it is making syrup and continuing a tradition that is definitely in the blood of many of us New Englanders!

Dudley Farm- George Page adding more sap to the boiling pan
Dudley Farm- George Page adding more sap to the boiling pan

Dudley Farm – Stoking the fire

It was fun to see some of the kids who had broken off long sticks from downed branches taking pink heart-shaped marshmallows to toast in the flames.  It’s too bad there isn’t any snow on the ground that might have allowed them to make “leather aprons” too!!!

What a wonderful time of the year– the days are getting longer and there is new maple syrup.  Delicious on all counts!!

My hope is that I can get back to Buster’s  this year with a new camera to recapture this sweet- sweet image from a couple of years ago!

Sweet Vapor! Buster Scranton's Sugar House 2013
Sweet Vapor! Buster Scranton’s Sugar House 2013

Peter Otis

Peter Otis Photos LLC

PLACES… PLANTS… PEOPLE… PLUS OTHER GEMS…

Filed Under: Blog, Uncategorized Tagged With: Buster Scranton, CT, Dudley Farm, Guilford, Maple Grove Farm, Maple Season, Maple Syrup, North Guilford, Oliver Scranton, Peter Marlowe Forest Products, Peter Otis Photos

North Guilford, CT on a brutally cold, yet lovely, late afternoon

Blasting through the grave markers, North Guilford Cemetery
Blasting through the grave markers, North Guilford Cemetery

Meetinghouse Hill, North Guilford on a brutally cold, yet lovely, late afternoon

We had placed our order for chicken pie dinners at the Congregational Church. Pick up time was 5:30. Sunset was about 5:20. So for about an hour – with two warm up stops back in our car – I wandered around capturing images. Seen here is an earlier one of both churches – Congregational and St. John’s Episcopal – plus snow blasting through the cemetery, both churches again just before sunset, and one sunset image through a tree next to the Congregational Church.

North Guilford Congregational Church on the left

North Guilford Congregational Church on the left – an earlier shot

St. John's Episcopal Church on the right

St. John’s Episcopal Church on the right – closer to sunset

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last of Saturday's warmth
The last of Saturday’s warmth

A hot shower, some sherry, and the delicious dinner…. now that was a great way to start Valentine’s eve!!

Peter Otis
Peter Otis Photos, LLC

PLACES… PLANTS… people… plus other gems…

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, Uncategorized Tagged With: blasting snow, Congregational Church, CT, Episcopal Church, freezing cold, Guilford, North Guilford, Peter Otis Photos, winter

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