Old Town - The Sugar House in the U.Maine forest is a busy place this time of year. Forest technician Frances Avery oversees and runs the syrup making process.

"It's an easy process to talk about but it's a lot of work," said Avery.

It includes tapping the trees and collecting sap in buckets, taking that
sap to a 275 gallon tank, then bringing the full tank back to the sugar
house where the sap is pumped through hold tanks and run through an
evaporator.

"I'm here everyday, I boil almost everyday. We usually collect
more than I can boil so it's a seven day a week until we're done," said Avery.

U.Maine Cooperative Extension Educator Kathy Hopkins grades syrup to make
sure it's uniform and of high quality. She says a lot of factors play a
part in the syrup's grade.

"To some extent, you depend on mother nature to get what you get,
but good care in the producing of it, cleanliness, not letting it sit
around for a long time, all of those things can make a difference," said Hopkins.

But the grade doesn't matter that much to Avery. He says it all tastes
great and his product is not even for sale.

"Most of it is given out as goodwill. We don't sell anything.
Nothing's being sold here," he said.

The U.Maine forest is participating in Maine Maple Sunday, but Avery says
the public can come visit on any day he's boiling.

"We're open almost everyday between now and then," he said.

Maine Maple Sunday is March 27th. For a list of participating sugar farms,
you can log onto mainemapleproducers.com.

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