Each year in Alexander, as winter gives way to spring, freezing cold nights and warm days signal to the maple trees that the growing season has begun and sap flows – literally by the gallon – for farmers like Eric Randall to continue the ancient tradition of the maple harvest. While many recent technological advances have changed the way sap is harvested and cooked into maple syrup, the basics remain the same as when Native Americans first began harvesting the sap thousands of years ago.
In the window of the sugar shack, small bottles representing samples from many batches of syrup demonstrate the variations in color and consistency, Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall drives a tractor as he heads into the woods to check for leaks on the 22 miles of tubes that draw sap from the maple trees in his forest in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall checks for leaks on the 22 miles of tubes that draw sap from the maple trees in his forest in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall patches up a hole in a tube, likely from a curious squirrel, as he checks for leaks on the 22 miles of tubes that draw sap from the maple trees in his forest in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Sap drips from the tap as maple farmer Eric Randall checks the tubing connections on some of the maple trees in his forest in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall looks up at a passing raptor as he checks for leaks on the 22 miles of tubes that draw sap from the maple trees in his forest in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall checks for leaks on the 22 miles of tubes that draw sap from the maple trees in his forest in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall checks for leaks on the 22 miles of tubes that draw sap from the maple trees in his forest in Castile.
Maple farmer Eric Randall ducks beneath the main line that carries sap from hundreds of trees in his wood lot to a series of collection tanks at the bottom of the hill in his forest in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall checks for leaks on the 22 miles of tubes that draw sap from the maple trees in his forest in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall starts up a tractor in the barn as he prepares to head out into his wood lot in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall climbs the ladder to check the levels of sap collected in a pair of 1,500-gallon custom-made steel tanks in the barn of his family farm in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Sap flows into a collection tank as it is pumped straight from the trees in the wood lot in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall uses a refractometer to measure the sugar content of the sap in a collection tank. The sap as it comes from the trees is only 2% sugar.
Maple farmer Eric Randall uses a reverse osmosis machine to remove water from the sap before passing the concentrated sap into a collection tank. Randall helped to develop the use of the process in the maple industry. It concentrates the sugar to make it easier to transport and faster to cook. When the process is complete, about three-quarters of the water will be removed, the concentrated sap will be 9% sugar and pharmaceutical-grade water will be created as the waste product.
Concentrated sap is pumped into a 500-gallon tank in a trailer at the farm in Castile.
Maple farmer Eric Randall secures the straps over a 500-gallon tank of concentrated sap after collecting it from the maple trees in his forest in Castile on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.
In the gift shop at Randalls Heritage Maple, there is a slice of a maple tree that reveals evidence of more than 70 taps at different points throughout the tree's history, which is marked by year in pencil according to the tree rings. There is evidence of tapping into the 1700s with mostly recognizable tap marks giving way to hatchet slashes in the earliest periods.
Wood is stacked outside the sugar shack.
Maple farmer Eric Randall adds logs to the highly efficient wood-burning stove at the heart of the evaporator in his sugar shack in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall manages buckets of piping hot water from the condensing steam in the evaporator as he cooks sap into maple syrup in his sugar shack in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall cooks sap into maple syrup in his sugar house in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall pours a hot batch of syrup into a filtration system before bottling as he cooks sap into maple syrup in his sugar shack in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall cooks sap into maple syrup in his sugar house in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Jerry Bertoldo keeps an eye on the temperature gauge and levels on the evaporator in the Randalls Heritage Maple sugar shack in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Chuck Lapp keeps an eye on the evaporator in the sugar shack in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall cooks sap into maple syrup in his sugar shack in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
A view into the highly efficient wood-burning stove at the heart of the evaporator in Randalls Heritage Maple sugar shack in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. The ridges in the back are troughs where the cooking syrup gets super heated by the fire.
Maple farmer Eric Randall adds logs to the highly efficient wood-burning stove at the heart of the evaporator in his sugar shack in Alexander with help from friend Jerry Bertoldo, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
After wood is added to the stove when the temperature in the stack dips below 700 degrees Fahrenheit, it quickly shoots up to about 900 degrees, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall stirs the sap before it starts to cook atop the evaporator that is both highly scientific and old school in his sugar shack in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. Randall uses a process that captures the waste steam from cooking and uses it to preheat the cold sap before it is added to evaporator.
Maple farmer Eric Randall pours a fresh batch of syrup into a tank for filtration and bottling as he cooks maple syrup in his sugar shack in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
The finished syrup pours into a tank for bottling at the end of the process in the sugar shack in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
Maple farmer Eric Randall wheels a 40-gallon drum of hot syrup away to make room for the next batch as he cooks sap into maple syrup in his sugar shack in Alexander with the help of Jerry Bertoldo, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
An assortment of maple products available for purchase at the Randalls Heritage Maple stand outside farmer Eric Randall's home in Alexander, Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
I have a front row seat to life in the Queen City. I enjoy exploring our community, sharing unique views, documenting history and bringing stories to life. 1999 News intern. 2000 Boston University graduate. FAA licensed drone pilot.
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It’s March, the sap is running and the sugar shacks are busy boiling it into syrup. But the work starts weeks before that.
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