/ Campus News /
ITS OWN SWEET TIME Sugaring Season’s Late Arrival Does Not Disappoint
Mr. Dalton passes on a Berkshire tradition in the Arthur C. Chase Sugar House.
Ritt Kellogg Mountain Program Director Mike Dalton, along with fellow teachers Rob Lloyd and Jesús Ibáñez, and students in the RKMP crew, collected over 400 gallons of fresh sap this season. Winter was slow to loosen her icy grip in Sheffield this year, delaying the start of the sugaring season under the Mountain. Mike Dalton provides a report from the Sugar House, at right:
“The first boil of the season was on March 12—the latest start that I can remember—and we were making syrup a month later, on April 14, which is also quite late. Early runs produced a light, sweet syrup that was probably between a light amber and a medium amber. End-of-season runs produced a darker syrup, but it still had excellent flavor. Often, late-run syrup will have a distinct ‘buddy’ flavor, but we ended with really flavorful syrup.
One pleasant surprise this season was the lack of ‘niter’ in the syrup. Niter, also called sugar sands, is the build-up of solids that precipitate out in the syrup pan and foul the bottom of the pans. When niter builds in the pans you need to scrub vigorously to get it off between boils. Despite of the fact that we had to wait a while to get favorable weather (cold nights and warm days), the final count was 53.5 gallons of liquid gold.”
In dark of sugar house—the pans seething, alive. I stand with head in clouds of steam Whipped by the west wind through the open wall. Steam flows through me, sweet on the lips And sticky in the hair. It’s the first run And every tank is full. –From Arthur Chase’s classic poem Sugar Weather Mr. Chase, aka the Bear, for whom the Arthur C. Chase Sugar House is named, and also our current mascot’s namesake. Go Bears!
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Berkshire Bulletin