SUGARMAKER HISTORY
My name is Richard Walker and I grew up in the small town of Alstead, New Hampshire. Within my hometown there were as many as 5 Maple Sugar Houses. Some were small operations and 2 were very large operations. They were Bascoms Sugar House and Clarks Sugar House. I always visited them during sugaring season. These two operations still are going strong today. For the smaller ones, Kelly’s Sugar House was the one I loved to go to. It was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Kelly who were both retired. It wasn’t much of a sugar house, more like a road side woodshed but they always had time to chat with the local kids and allow all of us time in the sugar house helping. It was a treat to be able to go out and gather sap with Mr. Kelly especially on the weekend. We were never paid but we received something much better than money. It was a trip into their kitchen where Mrs. Kelly would sit us down to the best Maple Baked Beans I’ve ever had. The times I spent with the Kelly’s will forever be etched in my memory, the tapping, gathering sap in waist high snow banks, the wood smell entering the sugar house and then the sweet smell of sugar. Oh and the smell and taste of the baked beans.
I as well worked for a logger in Jr. High School gathering sap for him and than traveling a distance to Charlestown, NH where he sold the sap to Putnam’s Sugar House. Every day that we delivered sap, we would be treated to another special treat, Sugar on Snow. I believe it was all these things I remember that stuck with me until I was ready to do sugaring on my own.
After I graduated from Fall Mt High School back in 1973 I entered the Air Force and decided to make a career out of the military. So sugaring had to wait. I found myself here in CT recruiting for the Air Force and built the home I now live in. Even before I retired I was starting to play with sugaring by building fire boxes out of stone and brick and boiling over an open fire for hours. It was a lot of work and many hours but each year I would make a few quarts of very dark syrup. Than in 1995 I bought a system called The Half Pint Evaporator System. I built a small shed and started boiling. I was not looking at going into business. In the sugaring season of 1996 while busy boiling I had folks stop by when they saw I was doing sugaring. They all encouraged me to do it as a business. It was at that time I decided to do just that. Over the years I have gotten bigger and better and producing more and more pure CT Maple Syrup. I have added many syrup products as well over the years to include my own Maple Mustard.
I truly enjoy sugaring and talking to folks about the process especially at our Sugaring Open House. Each year we see more and more newcomers.
Photo Courtesy of R.J. Phil