Spring Sugar Snow

We are having pretty typical March weather - heavy snowfall and wind (like Saturday and Sunday) and now gently falling big snowflakes that make our world a beautiful white fairyland. It is only 32 degrees, so probably the sap isn't running much today, but we are expecting warmer days later this week and that should improve the sugaring.

Yesterday I happened onto information on George Cary who was founder of Cary Maple Sugar Company in St. Johnsbury. Mr. Cary owned a farm and a large stand of maple trees in North Danville. He tapped thousands of trees to supply his maple business in St. Johnsbury. I found that a man named William Brower invented a tubing system for carrying sap from trees to sugar house, much like the plastic tubing in use today. Brower's tubing was made of iron pipe with a unique "gooseneck" shaped tubing used to run sap from the trees to the main pipeline. He introduced this system to George Cary, who actually installed it on some of his North Danville trees. 

George Clinton Cary was born in 1864, and by 1904, his Cary Maple Sugar Company was a million-dollar business in St. Johnsbury. He first occupied a building next to the Ide Feed Company building on Bay Street. As his maple business grew, he eventually joined with three St. Johnsbury women in 1920, Katharine Ide Gray, Helen Gray Powell, and Ethel McLaren, who ran a tea room and candy business in the beautiful old Pinehurst Mansion (shown above), now the Elk's (B.P.O.E.) Home on Western Avenue. Together, they formed Maple Grove Candy Company which eventually grew to the very large facility on Portland Street. World War I and the following depression years took a toll on Cary's personal wealth, and in 1931, he filed for bankruptcy. He died a few months later. The bankruptcy did not affect his business, and the Maple Grove Candy Company remains on Portland Street, in St. Johnsbury. If you are interested, here is a link to a very interesting, but quite lengthy, history presented by Matthew M. Thomas, PhD, on YouTube. I found the photos fascinating - there is a lot of Danville and St. Johnsbury history included.

Finally, I'm seeing some sunny breaks outside. This new snow cover will disappear quickly now the sun it out. The temperature is steadily rising and will reach the 40s later today, I expect. I'm finding it a little unnerving with the time change - no serious problems transitioning, but it doesn't feel quite "normal" yet. It always takes a few days for my mind and body to adapt, I guess. I find I'm hungry for lunch too early and it seems too soon to start preparing an evening meal when it's still very bright outside. I can't seem to stop thinking, "it's really only five o'clock" when the clock is reading six. A few more days and it will be forgotten, I'm sure.