Sugaring Glossary

APRONING - A test to check the density of boiling sap. When sap drips off the end of the dipper in sheets, it is "aproning" and is ready to be called syrup. The final test for proper density is done with a glass instrument floated in the syrup - a hydrometer or hydrotherm.

BUDDING - When warmer weather in the late spring causes leaf buds to swell, the syrup takes on a strong molasses flavor. This signals the end of the sugaring season.

DECLINE / DIEBACK - Signs of a lack of vigor in any tree. Causes are numerous and seem to be increasing. Much research is being done on maple decline and its possible link to environmental factors.

FILTERING - The process of clarifying pure maple syrup. Raw syrup contains various suspended particles (called "sugar sand') brought out in the boiling process. In earlier days, these particles were "settled out" in bulk containers before retail packaging. Today we filter through cloth and paper membranes, producing crystal clear syrup.

GATHERING - The process of collecting and moving the sap from the maple tree to the sugarhouse.

GRADING - The US Department of Agriculture sets standards for maple syrup. Grade A light, medium and dark amber are considered table grades. USDA Grade B is a dark, strong flavored syrup. often used in cooking, though some prefer it for table use as well. All are the same density. Lighter syrup has a more delicate flavor; darker is more "mapley." Medium and dark amber are most widely available. Light amber, used for maple candy and maple cream, is made early in the season; Grade B is made late.

MAPLE CANDY - Made by boiling down maple syrup, stirring it, and pouring it into molds for hardening. Pure maple candy is made from maple syrup only. Blended maple candy contains corn or cane sugars in addition to maple.

MAPLE CROP - An entire season's production. Average in Massachusetts is about 50,000 gallons for the entire state. Most of our sugar houses make between 100-1000 gallons.

REVERSE OSMOSIS - A mechanical means of removing some of the water from the sap before boiling.

SHELF LIFE/STORAGE - Unopened containers of pure maple syrup may be left in a cool dark place for 6-12 months without refrigeration. After opening. syrup should be refrigerated. Freezer storage keeps open or unopened containers indefinitely, and the liquid does not solidify. Any harmless mold that forms on the surface of opened syrup may be skimmed off, and the product may be used after reheating to 190'F. Place reheated syrup in new, airtight containers.

SOFT SUGAR or MAPLE CREAM - A table spread with the consistency of peanut butter. Made by boiling syrup to a slightly lower temperature than that for maple candy, then cooling and stirring.

SUGARBUSH - The maple grove where trees are tapped and sap collected. A sugarbush is measured not by the number of maple trees, but by the number of spouts or taps set. Some old maples drip sap from as many as four spouts. Young trees (at least 40 years old) only have one tap. In either case, each tap yields about 10 gallons of sap over the whole season, which makes about one quart of syrup.

SUGARHOUSE - The rustic building where boiling the sap into syrup takes place.

SUGAR ON SNOW - A sticky, taffy-like treat made by thickening syrup on a stove and immediately pouring it on fresh snow or ice crystals. Eat a pickle between servings!

SUGARING TIME (Season) - Occurs in early spring when days are 35-45 degrees and nights are below freezing. When several of these days occur in succession, sap begins to flow. When nighttime temperatures remain above freezing and days warm into the 50's, the trees begin to bud and the season ends.

SWEET TREES - Not all sugar maple trees are equal. Some have sweeter sap than their neighbors. It takes fewer gallons of this sweet sap to make a gallon of syrup. Efforts to genetically predict (and reproduce) sweet trees have met with some success.

TAPPING - The first step in sugaring, when 7/16" diameter holes are drilled about 3" deep into maple tree trunks. Many old trees have been tapped in this way for 75 or more years.

TUBING/ PIPELINE - Increasingly used in hillside sugarbushes, plastic tubing conveys the sap directly from each tree to holding tanks. Some lines are a mile or more long and may connect 500 or more taps to a single tank.

"Swans on Scamman Pond"

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Sugaring with Uncle Harry

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I remember as if it were yesterday, though at least 35 years have passed. Warm spring Sundays, filled with the hope that spring always brings. Sun shining on my face as I left church and greeted Uncle Harry at the door.

Uncle Harry was a deacon in our church and he wasn't my uncle - he was everyone's Uncle. His kindly face, worn with the seasons of a Yankee native's life, would beam as he leaned down to remind me of the sugaring off party at his sugarhouse that afternoon and called me "dear" in that rich North Country accent that resonates still in my brain.
Of course he didn't need to remind me, or anyone else in our informal confederation of communities, drawn together by the necessity of sharing schools, churches, fire departments, police. The moment that sap buckets appeared on the maples along the road we knew that the moment was approaching. Children and adults alike would find their conversations turning to the sap and Uncle Harry's sugaring off party.


Uncle Harry sugared the old fashioned way, though many of the sugaring operation of the day were even then beginning to modernize. His only concession to the modern age came well toward the end of his days when the horse drawn sled gave way to a small blue tractor. Even then, though, he would alight from his tractor, put the rugged yoke around his neck and trudge through the snow from tree to tree gathering sap from the buckets by hand and emptying them into the container on the tractor. When the huge container on the tractor was full it would be transferred to the sugarhouse where his wood fired boiler and evaporator would turn the sweet sap into maple syrup.


-It was the 60's and despite the conservative ways of my North Country neighbors Uncle Harry began to wear his hair long. Not shaggy like so many of my older friends, but longer than the norm for disapproving adults. Uncle Harry's hair was more like a snow-covered rainbow, mostly white with streaks of brown, gold and red as it flowed in waves down his head. It almost seemed that the golden brown of his syrup had so thoroughly penetrated his being that even his hair reflected its glory. Though he never said a word about it to me, I think letting his hair grow was Uncle Harry's way of sending a message to the young people in the community that their choice of self expression did not make them outcasts - despite the whispering and snide remarks of other adults. We loved him for it.


Then the long anticipated day would arrive. After church Uncle Harry would head back to his orchard to prepare for the festivities. A huge pile of clean snow, gathered thoughtfully on some long passed stormy day, lay covered with a large canvas tarp to be unveiled only when the children were gathered around squeeling delightedly.


When families began to arrive Harry Uhlman would be hidden away in his sugarhouse boiling the syrup past pancake thickness to that special level where just the act of pouring it on a snowcovered plate would seem like a spiritual experience. . . nature's sweetest celebration of the spring. While he finished the syrup the children would play in the maple groves, waiting for the moment that they would form a human wave of exhuberance as they rushed to get in line. The adults would mingle, share tales of winter tribulations and plans for the warm days ahead, and pretend that they weren't just as excited as the children. . . .and then Uncle Harry would emerge, wooden bucket in hand, a silly old hat on his head, smiling like an angel . . . I think he was. I know he is now. To this day I can't see a sugarhouse or a tapped maple that doesn't bring him back into my life.

"Maple Ablaze"


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The Republic of Indian Stream

by Wayne D. King

Long before US independence from England the region of New Hampshire now known as Pittsburg was the subject of territorial disputes. First between the British and the French and later between the US and Canada.

The region, known as Indian Stream, encompassed approximately 200,000 acres on the border between New Hampshire and Canada. And its story began long before the formation of a republic during another famous conflict. From 1754 to 1763 Europe and the Colonies were caught up in a conflict between England, under King George II, and France, under King Louis XV. In Europe this period was known in The Seven Years War. In North America it came to be called the French and Indian War. It was a conflict over trade and land.

Prior to the time of this conflict, the region was a well-kept secret of Native people’s and the occasional hunter and trapper. But the conflict brought military parties for both sides into this region, most notably the famous Roger’s Rangers, and word quickly spread both north and south about this extraordinary place with warmer weather, large meadows and fine hunting and fishing. They even found where Native Americans had panned for gold in Annance Gulch. While people were slow to move because of the boundary question, some intrepid souls were willing to trade the security of well establish boundaries for the dream of such a bountiful land and within a few years of the end of the conflict the settlers numbers had swelled to 360 souls. Yet the land dispute continued between the “super powers” even after the powers themselves realigned as a result of the Revolutionary war and the British authorities were replaced by US authorities.

As a result of the land dispute, both governments made demands on the settlers. The Canadian Government attempted to press some of them into military service, while the United States government attempted to collect taxes.

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The continuing roots of the problem lay in the difference between the vagaries of geography and nature and the tendency for men to try and simplify their description of the same. In the early days of the US many a deed set the stage for a land dispute, describing a bound by a particular tree, streambed, rock cairn or other object not inclined to remain static to satisfy the needs of mere mortals. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the American War for Independence, was no different. It set the boundary as "the north western most head of the Connecticut River”. However, three tributaries feed into that part of the head of the Connecticut River and almost immediately each government went about setting the boundary based on the tributary that gave it the most land.

For nearly 60 years the dispute continued to fester and cause no end to headaches for the fiercely independent folks of Indian Stream. They had come here to build a life for themselves based on the rich resources of the land and found themselves caught in a geopolitical struggle reaching far beyond their own boundaries and understanding and finally reaching beyond their patience.

On July 9, 1832, they declared the disputed area to be a sovereign nation - the Indian Stream Republic. Settlers drafted a constitution, detailing the rights and obligations of the citizens; instituted their own court system; issued their own stamps and currency; established a militia; and did all they needed to be an independent nation.

Of course, neither the US or Canadian governments were content with this solution and chose to ignore the sovereignty of the Republic and to attempt to enforce their own laws upon the citizens of Indian Stream. Even among the citizens themselves there were factions loyal to one side or the other, despite their independence and, as is common in such geopolitical disputes, each side used the divided loyalties to further their own cause.

As one might imagine, despite their noble efforts, forming your own country is a process fraught with peril. Residents of Indian Stream soon discovered some of the difficulties when scoundrels fleeing the law on either side of the Republic sought refuge within the protective confines of Indian Stream. Indian Stream was not well equipped to deal with law breakers . . . their only jail was a large potash kettle which was placed upside down over the prisoner on a large flat rock. Soon other problems began to present themselves: some citizens refused to pay taxes or even their store bills. Canadian officers continued to served writs in the Territory and the New Hampshire sheriff tried to make arrests.

In 1835 a tit-for-tat series of arrests created the catalytic series of events that led to the demise of Indian Stream. Luther Parker, a former leader of the Indian Stream Republic who headed a group known as “The New Hampshire Boys” with pro New Hampshire sympathies, was arrested by Quebec authorities. Luther owned a store in Indian Stream and was accused of threatening a Canadian citizen with a knife during an argument in the store. Luther was freed when friends swore "he wasn't threatening anyone with that knife, he was just whittling."

Shortly after Luther’s release Quebec Justice of the Peace Alexander Rea held a meeting in a local schoolhouse to attempt to convince residents that they should annex themselves to Canada. The meeting was quickly adjourned when Luther Parker and the New Hampshire Boys showed up to break it up.

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New Hampshire authorities lost no time in arresting John Tyler, a pro Canadian resident of Indian Stream. It is commonly believed that this arrest was in retaliation for Parker’s arrest. However, before the sheriff could get Tyler out of the Republic of Indian Stream, a band of pro-Canadian citizens rescued him.

Canada struck back when Rea, issued an arrest warrant for Richard Blanchard, a resident of Indian Stream who was also a New Hampshire deputy sheriff and NH sympathizer. Rea himself attempted to enforce his warrant with several posses from Canada that streamed across the border and arrested Blanchard. But before Canadian authorities with Blanchard had crossed back with their captive, the Indian Stream people were alerted, gathered a crowd, and chased the posses and rescued Blanchard. Emboldened by their success in rescuing Blanchard the Indian Stream citizens were not content to stop with their rescue but in a heated discussion at the store talked themselves into entering Canada to kidnap Rea, which they did. Their efforts appear to have simply been their way of striking back in the midst of incursions into their own sovereign territory as they only held Rea for a few hours. When they couldn’t agree on what to do with him, they simply let him go.

History is littered with the wreckage of small nations who thought that they could use the disputes of two goliaths to assure their own future only to find that when faced with such a problem even long-time enemies will come together long enough to quash the uprising. The kidnapping of Rea set off alarm bells in both Canada and the US and as a result of a communiqué between Lord Gossford of Canada and Governor Badger of New Hampshire, the NH militia were deployed to occupy the territory, with Gossford’s tacit approval.

In January of 1836, Canada relinquished its claim on the Indian Stream Territory. In May of that year the Indian Stream Republic citizens accepted New Hampshire’s authority. Pro-New Hampshire residents remained, and many pro-Canada residents emigrated to Canada. The Indian Stream Republic was incorporated into the town of Pittsburg without dispute of Canadian authorities, although it would be 1842 before the boundary line was officially set and the land recognized as belonging to New Hampshire with the signing of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.


The Phantom Highlander


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The Monarch
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A Gentle Soul
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