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Tapping Boiling And Celebrating The Sweet Season With Smith’s Green Mountain Finest

Peter Smith Jr. pauses for a moment to welcome some new visitors to the Smith Maple Sugaring House!
photo by provided
Peter Smith Jr. pauses for a moment to welcome some new visitors to the Smith Maple Sugaring House!
No matter the size of the jug, the maple is sweet and waiting for you!
photo by provided
No matter the size of the jug, the maple is sweet and waiting for you!

Tuesday March 8, 2016

By Cookie Steponaitis

All serious maple farmers will tell you that the sweet crop of Vermont maple is a mixture of the cold nights, sunny days, alternating freezing and thawing, and Mother Nature’s blessings for a good harvest. With over 200 different species of trees in the maple family, the sugar maple is a slow growing hard wood and with heights of over a hundred feet. Reaching great size and living to a ripe old age, the sap of a sugar maple has a higher concentration of sugar than the other maple trees and produces the best flavors of syrup.
    It was 2003 when Peter Smith and his family hung eleven buckets on the front yard and began what Smith jokingly refers to as “an expensive hobby”. Learning a great deal from neighbor and friend Ken Hastings who showed up that first season with buckets, a propane stove and a great big pan, Smith and his family have each year expanded the maple business to include the addition of a Sugar House in 2004, 150 more buckets that year and a pipeline system that currently taps 325 Vermont trees and 225 New York Trees. Next year, Smith and his family are hoping to be at around 1000 taps with all three generations involved. The Smiths are also always checking out the newest techniques at local Maple Schools, which were started years ago by local agricultural teacher Bill Scott. While the Smiths pride themselves on their product, Peter remembers the wisdom shared with him from “Lester” Morway from Grand Isle who gave the family some three hundred buckets when they first began. “There are two kinds of sugar makers,” explained Morway, “Those who will burn a pan and those who have burned a pan.”
    What sets Smith’s Green Mountain Finest apart from many others is the attention to detail, high quality and pride with which the product is made. Whether it was the addition of the better quality jugs with the oxygen barriers, the personal service when creating wedding favors or simply stopping to chat with a customer coming to buy one jug or hundreds, the Smiths are on the job. While Grandpa Smith serves as the official taste tester, Peter Sr, and Peter Jr, are hard at work with a 5/16 drop lines and ¾ inch mainlines and annually create not only syrup, but Maple Crème and Maple Barbecue Sauce.
    “One of the best parts of the season for us is seeing the people,” remarked Smith.  Neighbors come over and people of all ages love to come and help or stay and visit. My wife will whip up some food and we might even have ice cream with maple syrup. People come and buy, but people also come and visit. It is a highlight for us to see the people who are from all over Addison County and New York State as well.” So if you are interested in seeing the boiling process where on average it takes 40 gallons of sap to create one gallon of syrup, check out the Facebook page Smith’s Green Mountain Finest, or give the family a call at (802) 759-2673. “We love being in the woods, but we really love having company while boiling,” added Smith. “Some people will say that they can tell the difference between maple syrup that’s been boiled over wood fire versus oil. Come out to Addison and check it out.”
    The Valley Voice salutes the Smith family for mixing the best of traditions that Vermont has to offer. Take nature, time honored traditions, mix in three generations and a pride in quality and selling local and you can understand why things are just sweeter this time of year, just down the road in Addison, Vermont with Peter Smith and his family.


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