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Backyard Sugaring==Resting in Peace #4 LbNA #50118

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Aug 31, 2009
Location:
City:Franklin
County:New London
State:Connecticut
Boxes:1
Planted by:The Maple Leafs
Found by: Buzz599
Last found:Jan 23, 2022
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Last edited:Aug 31, 2009
Backyard Sugaring==Resting in Peace #4
Rated: Easy
Gager Cemetery

Box 1 Forty Gallons
Sugaring is one of natures’ sweetest gifts. Despite the fact that it is hard work, time consuming and expensive to make, the finished product is rewarding. On the average, the trees to be tapped should be 12 inches in diameter and it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup.
You have to know your trees… as when their leaves are gone it may be more difficult to recognize a sugar maple from a swamp, red or white maple. Of course, you can tap a white birch tree and make a product called birch syrup! We deliberately ‘tapped’ a phone/utility pole once to tease the city folk!
We only had a total of 17 trees to tap and one entire season of 6 weeks produced a total of 5 gallons of syrup. We would collect the sap daily in 5 gallons jugs and would cook every three days. Each cooking day was cooking about 18-20 gallons at a time in a time frame of 14 hours!!. We started with a wood pot belly stove outside then graduated to a 2 burner propane gas burner stove. We did the final finishing in the house. It cost us 5 times more to make our own than to buy it…
We bought fancy maple leaf shaped bottles from Leader Co., Vermont. Plus, I would pour it in into jelly jars and process it like jelly. There are several sugar shacks in Lebanon and Hebron with Hebron having a town wide maple festival each March. Also, Canada, New York, all the New England states and some of the other colder states do sugaring also. You need day temperatures of 40 and above and night temperatures of 32 and below for the sap to flow.

Directions: From the intersection of Routes 207 and 32 in Franklin (near Kahns Tractor and Smith 4x4), proceed on Route 32 North for 0.7 miles and turn onto the 1st. right, which is Pleasure Hill Road, then go 0.2 miles to Ward Lane on the left. Go about 100 feet and see an unmarked Gager Cemetery on your left. To the right of the cemetery is a dirt road leading to a house on the hill behind the cemetery, but you can go a few feet on the road and pull onto the grass. The entrance is at the front far left of the cemetery.
Clues: Follow the left wall about half way to a stone of Aunt Gusta and see a clump of trees on the inside of the wall. Behind these trees and in the wall is a box waiting to be stamped in and out. Thank you for visiting us.
P.S. Bring clues to ‘Our Precious Cargo’ as it is very close by.