Shepherd’s had a long history of maple syrup, starting all the way back in 1958. The tradition of tapping trees for sap and creating maple syrup, alongside other products, lives on thanks to the Sugar Bush Corporation. You’re probably wondering how they do it?

THE EARLIEST FESTIVALS INCLUDED FAMILY ACTIVITIES AND PANCAKES

Well it’s pretty simple. The first and unskippable step is to, of course, tap maple trees and get sap. This process has you drilling a hole into a maple tree, then hammering a spout into it. Sap is produced by photosynthesis during the summer, and then when the temperature changes, the freezing nights and mild days will cause it to flow. You can hang a bucket or bag on a spout for collection. Keep in mind, it’s important for your bucket to have a lid, protecting it from leaves or rain.

SHEPHERD HAS THOUSANDS OF SAP COLLECTING BUCKETS THROUGHOUT THE TOWN, AND TWO FORESTS FOR COLLECTIONS

The collected sap is filtered to remove impurities and then sent on to an RO machine. RO stands for reverse osmosis, and it will remove 50% of the water in the sap. It’s important to do this because a gallon of sap straight out of a tree is only equal to ½ cup of maple syrup. After the reverse osmosis machine, what's left is boiled.

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW MAPLE PRODUCTS ARE MADE, CONSIDER TOURING THE SUGAR BUSH SITE

After boiling what remains is maple syrup. From there though, you can make maple sugar, and by extension maple ice cream and candies. maple sugar is healthier than regular sugar, and when made into other products such as ice cream, the maple taste is barely there.

CONSIDER VISITING https://shepherdsugarbush.com/