NH Maple Syrup

[Senter Cove Guy]

I had the pleasure of visiting with the Hunter's at their Maple Syrup Shack in Melvin Village this afternoon. I hadn't been in there in over 30 years. Jeff and Cy Hunter were tending the syrup making with other family members in attendance. The building dates back to 1922. The production totals of each year were recorded on the inside of the sliding front door with some also recorded on the side of the door casing. Jeff took a paper cup and dipped some sap directly out of a collection bucket and let me taste it. It was the consistency of water with a very slight maple taste. Then I got the real treat, a sample of syrup directly from the boiling process. Mmmmmmm!! Forty gallons of sap boiled down to one gallon of maple syrup.

Production this year is not as large as other years. Since the tree's were tapped, there have been cold spells which stop the sap flow by freezing the tap hole followed by warm and then cold again which confused the trees.

I wonder how many other maple syrup shacks there are around the lake. I know of at least one more, the Vappi family on route 171.

Can't you just picture the olde days with families gathered around a "Sugar Shack" and the kids sitting in the snow eating snow covered with maple syrup? Part of the good life here in NH.

Pictures
1 - Sap House Sign
2 - Sap House
3 - Wood for fire
4 - Sap bucket - 1 of about 1500
5 - Small evaporator
6 - Large evaporator
7 - Steam exiting through the roof of the sap house
8 - Syrup being drawn from the filter box
9 - Yearly production figures recorded on sliding front door