March is “Massachusetts Maple Month,” according to the publicity on the home page of the Massachusetts Maple Producers Organization. The website FAQ page lists various interesting factoids about maple sugar such as these:

• The maple sugaring season generally lasts 4-6 weeks, from late February to mid-April
• Acer saccharum and Acer nigrum are the preferred species for maple sugar production
• Sap flows are dependent on weather conditions; freezing nights and warm days are best
• Native American Indians had a process for making maple sugar as early as 1609
• Maple syrup is a clear liquid containing about 2% dissolved sugar
• It usually takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup
• Pure maple syrup is graded according to color and flavor
• Massachusetts produces about 50,000 gallons annually, worth about two million dollars
• Canada produces more of the world’s maple syrup than all of the United States combined

In my little hometown, the Warren Farm offers sugaring tours on Saturdays and Sundays in March. It’s within walking distance from my house, so I stopped by this past Sunday. It was too blustery and cold for official tours to be scheduled, but we were able to watch the boiling. I didn’t venture into the woods to look for the trees with their sap buckets, and I’m not even sure they do it this way anymore because the modern method uses plastic tubing for the gathering.

The Sugar Shack sits atop a low rise; steam is condensing in the cold air.

The evaporator is a furnace covered with huge flat pans which boils water out of the sap.

For this operation, it’s more economical to burn cords of wood rather than oil.