The Dana family has been making pure Vermont maple syrup for five generations, on the same farm. We take pride in continuing old fashioned practices to make a high quality product. These traditional methods include: small batch, gravity collected, 100% wood fired and finished syrup, which we believe produces some of the best tasting syrup in New England.
We currently have about 2000 taps that are connected to tubing which are gravity fed to our four holding tanks . When the sap is running, it must be gathered at least once daily.
The sap from our road-side tanks are brought to one large tank that feeds right into the evaporator to start the process of becoming maple syrup.
Did you know it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup? We currently are operating fully on a wood-fired evaporator. As the sap boils down and the water is drawn out of the sap, it begins to develop its thick consistency and amber color.
Sap becomes syrup when it reaches 219 degrees fahrenheit. Once it reaches 219, a hydrometer is used to ensure it is the correct density. Because our operation relies on gravity, our canning area is located in the basement of the sugar house. Once the correct density is acquired, the sap is released through a valve, to the filter press down stairs.
The 2018 season we were able to upgrade from traditional cloth filters to the filter press pictured above. When sap is boiled down, the minerals that are naturally found in maple sap concentrate and form niter, or "sugar sand." Filtering out the niter improves color, clarity, and taste of the finished maple syrup.