TAProots Sugar Bush
Early March is maple sugar time at the Lakehouse. The Lakehouse lot is 90 feet wide at the Lakefront and widens to 250 feet above the house and continues up the hillside for over 1500 feet, encompassing over five acres. Most of the trees covering this slope are sugar maples, hundreds of them. In late February, a local man, Tim Walters, inserts taps into the maple trees and hooks the taps to long blue tubes which extend far up the 10-15% grade. They then lead down to Westbluff Drive and the Latour’s parking pad, where they are connected to a 4x4x4 foot heavy plastic bin. When the nights are cold and the days warmer, the sap starts to run. Tim comes along with his truck and pumps the sap into a tank in his truck for transport to his sugar shack. There it is poured onto a wide, rimmed condenser heated with fire wood. The water is driven off with 40 gallons of sap making one gallon of syrup. When it is thick enough, he bottles it up in a variety of sizes of jugs and gives us a share of the production. He makes a deep golden, fine product. Breakfasts at TAProots have no limits on syrup for the grandchildren. It is truly another gift from our beautiful forest.
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