We took some visitors from Rhode Island to Goodrich's Sugar House over on Rt. 2 this week. While not altogether unfamiliar with the maple syrup/sugaring process, our guests were fascinated by the history, displays and technology. Neither Glen or Ruth were there, but Rick Young (pictured above) was both knowledgeable and entertaining. He doesn't have quite the same dry, Vermont sense of humor Ruth and Glen do, but you see, he isn't a native. Rick told us he hails from Colebrook, N.H. originally, but met Ruth when she was down south helping out after a hurricane. When Rick and his wife experienced one storm after another, they contacted Ruth and Glen about relocating to Vermont. They now have a beautiful post and beam home just above the Goodrich's sugar house, on land the Goodrich's sold to them, and Rick works part time with them.

Back to the museum. That huge slab of maple tree on the wall beside the two ladies, Ora and Kate, was taken down on the Goodrich farm. The dark spots that circle the piece are from the many years of tapping. Each mark indicates where a spout was inserted into the tree. There are lots of photos and a nice display of sugaring equipment showing how the industry has changed over the eight generations the Goodrich family has been making maple syrup.

Glen has developed a super efficient evaporator that conserves energy by using the steam that normally would be exhausted out of the building. His invention not only uses less energy, it also processes the sap into syrup much more quickly, and that makes a much higher quality maple product. Maple sap has a high percentage of water, and Glen's equipment extracts a large amount of that water before the sap goes into the evaporator. Rather than discard this water as waste, Glen will soon be adding bottled water to their product line. Yankee ingenuity, by golly, if I ever saw it.

Stop by sometime when you've got a half hour or so to spend. They do "tours on demand", so you won't have to wait around, and you can ask as many questions as you can think of. They didn't have samples of the different grades of syrup for us to taste this time, but when I take tour groups there during Fall Foliage Day (October 3) they will have them out so you can really choose the grade syrup that suits your taste buds best. Plan to come along on October 3rd. I'll be taking a group to Goodrich's and the Gallery at Loon Cove that afternoon; in the morning I'll be taking folks by bus on a garden tour to two different locations in Cabot, with lots of great photo ops, if the foliage and weather cooperate. Tours leave at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. You're more than welcome to come along.