Article By Bob Kalish
Brunswick Times Record
March 23, 2000
Photos by Paul Cunningham
DRESDEN-- A new sugar shack on the
Dresden site of Goranson's Farm will consolidate the farm's
maple syrup operation, which previously had been
divided between Whitefield and Dresden.
What makes this year different is that the syrup,
which used to be marketed under the Elderberry
Hollow name, will be labeled with Goranson's Farm's own
label. The change came about with the sale of Rob
Johanson's family farm in North Whitefield. The syrup was
made there, even though some of the trees that were
tapped are on the farm in Dresden.
According to Johanson, who with his wife, Jan
Goranson, runs the farm, the sale of the
Whitefield fami y farm won't change much.
"Actually," Johanson said, "instead of taking the
sap from Dresden to Whitefield to boil it, now we're taking the sap from Whitefield to Dresden and boiling it
down here. But the advantage for us is that we don't have
a half-hour drive after boiling sap all day."
A new 22-by-24-foot sugar shack at the farm on
River Road.is being used for the first time to boil the sap down to syrup. Johanson and Goranson expect to
end up with about 250 gallons by the end of the season, which is determined by the temperatures.
"Ideally," Johanson said, "the temperatures should
be between 20 and 40 degrees. You need a good freeze and a good thaw to get the sap running. We had a
good start about four weeks ago, which is early. Then it
got cold and stayed cold. Now it's just about
perfect."
The new sugar shack is fully automated. Sap is
loaded into steel containers that are set up high. As a result, the sap is fed by gravity through copper and
plastic tubing to the large shallow pan in which it is boiled down. The ratio of sap to syrup depends on the time
of the season, according to Johanson.
"At the beginning, because there is a lot of sugar in
the sap, it takes about 25 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. Toward the end of the cycle, it is
about 60-to-1."
The sap flow is controlled by a float. As the water
is boiled off, the thickening syrup collects in the center of the pan, where another sensor records the
temperature. When the temperature gets to 219 degrees Fahrenheit, the syrup is ready to be poured
off and bottled.
Depending on when the boiling is done, the syrup
can be any color from dark to light, but is still classified as grade A in Maine. The grading system in Maine is
based on color, not quality, Johanson said, unlike other
states.
The couple sell their syrup at their farm stand
in Dresden and in farmers' markets in Bath and Brunswick. They will give tours between 10 a.m.-5
p.m. Sunday during Maine Maple Sunday's promotion of
local maple syrup producers. |