If New England had a flavor, it would be the rich, sweet taste of maple syrup.
In springtime, when the weather begins to warm, the sap begins flowing from maples - and harvesters capture the clear liquid that will eventually be made into an array of maple-flavored products.
This year's sugaring season arrived early because of the warm winter. Taps have been flowing for several weeks. At Ioka Valley Farm on Route 43 in Hancock, the Leab family is busy extracting and processing sap from 2,400 taps.
The Leab family has operated Ioka Valley Farm since 1936, and began producing maple products about eight years ago. Robert Leab welcomes visitors to the humid maple sugaring house, answering questions about the process that range from the tree's initial tapping to the final product's many uses.
Sign of spring
The six-week maple sugaring season generally begins at the end of February when sugars begin to travel upward from the root. April often brings the end of the season when the buds break on the trees and starches begin to develop.
The traveling sugars from the root of the tree are intercepted by taps, which are positioned in different trunk locations each year to allow for healing of previously drilled areas. The small size of the modern plastic taps causes less damage to the tree than the more traditional taps. Typically only hobbyists use the traditional methods and tools of sugaring, as such methods are very labor intensive.
Leab notes that "freezing nights and thawing days" create the ideal conditions for the maple sap to flow from the taps. This clear liquid, which contains only 2 percent sugar at this point, travels in tubes to storage tanks. From these tanks, the liquid is pumped to the maple sugar house where the condensing process begins.
"It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup," says Leab, "but we've been averaging about 50 to 1 this year." Approximately 5 gallons of sap pass through the boiler each hour, creating 300 gallons of steam which fill the air and flow from the roof of the sugar house.
Purification process
After boiling at very specific temperatures the sap is eventually condensed to its final maple-colored state. The final step in the process involves filtering the syrup to remove any "sugar sand" that has accumulated in the process. Leab likens these mineral deposits to hard water.
The properties of the final product are a product of the environment alone. The beginning of the season typically yields a light amber syrup, but as the season progresses, the syrup gradually becomes darker. The lighter syrup has more sugar content, but less maple flavor. The darker syrup, such as Grade B, is less sweet and has a bitter maple flavor. According to Leab, "It's all done by Mother Nature."
Ioka Valley Farm is holding maple boiling demonstrations and featuring their pure maple products in weekend breakfasts at their cafe through April 7, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.. They can be reached at (413) 738-5915 or www.taconic.net/IokaValleyFarm.
In recognition of Massachusetts Maple Month, many restaurants are offering special menu items. Experienced cooks know that maple can flavor much more than pancakes.
Of course, maple desserts are traditional favorites, such as this recipe for oatmeal maple cookies:
½ cup Crisco
1 cup maple syrup
½ cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ cups flour
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
Add above ingredients together and mix well.
1 ½ cups oatmeal
½ cup raisins
½ cup chopped nuts
Mix into the first ingredients. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool on rack. Makes 2 dozen cookies.
Here is a list of the Berkshire County sugar houses:
BECKET
Three Bears Sugarhouse (413) 623-6021
668 County Rd.
CUMMINGTON
Maple Hollow Sugarhouse (413) 634-5595
337 Stage Rd.
Temple's Sugarhouse (413) 634-2194
115 Dodwell's Rd.
Tessiers Sugarhouse (413) 634-5022
Located at 60 Fairgrounds Rd.
FLORIDA
Circle J Maple Syrup (413) 663-7604
48 Oleson Rd.
HANCOCK
Ioka Valley Farm (413) 738-5915
3475 Rte. 43
LENOX
Mill Brook Sugarhouse (413) 298-3473 or 637-0474
Turn E on New Lenox Rd. off Rte 7 & 20, halfway between Lenox and Pittsfield (near carwash). Sugarhouse 2 miles on L.
NEW ASHFORD
Jennings Brook Farm (413) 458-5274
Rte 7 to New Ashford, then Mallory Rd., then Beach Hill Rd. Halfway up Reach Hill Rd. on L.
OTIS
Deer Run Maples (413) 269-7588
135 Ed Jones Rd.
SOUTH EGREMONT
Turner Farm Sugarhouse (413) 528-5710
11 Phillips Rd.
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Greylock School Project Garnering Interest From Bidders
By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A recent walkthrough of the Greylock School site turned out more interest than expected, which school officials and project managers hope will translate into multiple bids.
The project includes the demolition of the 60-year-old elementary school and the construction of a new two-story school directly to its north.
"We don't always expect a lot of them to show when a building is going to be demolished. There's not a lot for them to see," said Tim Alix of Collier's International, the owner's project manager, told the School Building Committee on Tuesday. "But just putting eyes on the site, seeing where the utilities are coming in so they can they've seen them all that information on the documents, but to see it in 3-D and they can start making their plans.
"We're hopeful that that means that we are going to be receiving a number of bids in each category. So that's encouraging."
The subcontracting bids are due Tuesday and the general contractors' on Jan. 14. Alix said there will be plenty of time to review the subcontractor documents before releasing that information so the general contractors can compile their bids. All bidders went through a prequalification process this past fall to be accepted by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which is covering more than two-thirds of the cost of the project.
Jesse Saylor of TSKP Studio, the school's designer, said there have also been a lot of questions from potential bidders.
"We have received a number of bidders' questions, which are called bid RFIs, and that's normal," he said. "I think it shows participation, you know, bidders who are working on the job, are looking at the documents, and they're finding things that they want to make sure they understand."
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