Story and photos by: Jeremy J. Fowler, Public Affairs Specialist, NRCS, N.H. 

A New England staple, maple syrup is traditionally the first crop to be harvested each year in the Northeast as many farmers look to the woods in late January through March to produce the goodness that results from the concentrated tree sap. From small operations to large production, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in New Hampshire provides practices to help take the sting out of what can be an arduous task.

From energy efficiency improvements in the sugarhouse, to better management of the crop species – maple trees – in the sugarbush, the NRCS technical and financial assistance offerings under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) have proven to be a useful tool for these producers.

In Lyme, New Hampshire, Wayne Pike is a mid-scale maple producer that sought NRCS assistance on his operation and has been thrilled with the results. Each year, in late winter he sets out to collect the sap of the maple trees, producing up to 300 gallons of syrup annually. However, the work to get there begins much earlier than that. Wayne must plan his firewood requirements more than one year ahead of time to ensure he has enough dry, seasoned hardwood for his next batch of golden goodness.

It takes a significant amount of energy to produce maple syrup. Each gallon of sap will only yield up to 3.5 ounces of syrup. The balance is excess water that must be removed to concentrate the sugars to end up with the flowy, golden delight that compliments many American’s pancakes, waffles or as a coffee sweetener. 

While the amount will differ due to fluctuations in sap sugar content, it is often said that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Though this can be hotly debated by professional producers, where this holds true, it means that for one gallon of syrup to be produced from a 40-gallon barrel of sap, up to 39 gallons of water needs to be removed.

There are several ways to do this, but often, and most traditionally, this is done by boiling the sap to remove that water using a wood-fired boiler – known as an evaporator. While other methods of combustion are used, such as propane or fuel oil, a good old-fashioned wood-fired arch is generally what is found in many small and mid-size operations in New Hampshire. This often allows the producer to determine their own fuel costs through the ‘sweat equity’ of processing their own local cord wood.

“We went from stoking the old evaporator every 6-7 minutes to stoking the new one every 35-40 minutes with roughly the same amount of wood,” said Pike, “it also produces less ash.”

If you have ever boiled some water over a wood fire, you may realize just how long this can take – you may even appreciate how much energy that translates to. If you have had to cut and dry your own firewood, you are probably thinking that this sounds like a big lift.

“His evaporator was more than twenty years old and inefficient,” explains Tom Ebert, NRCS District Conservationist for Grafton County in New Hampshire. “It required wood to be fed up to ten times an hour, or about every six minutes,” he said. “Fortunately, there have been a lot of advances in technology in the evaporator industry and improvements often have a big impact on these operations.” 

Wayne worked with NRCS to assess his operation, identify possible solutions and ultimately utilized the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to procure and install a new, high-efficiency wood-fired evaporator and preheater. In NRCS this is known as implementing a combustion system improvement practice. This increases the efficiency of the process, resulting in a cleaner burn of the wood, less particulate matter in the exhaust, and reduces overall fuel consumption. “It uses approximately 20% less wood,” explains Ebert, “the new evaporator saves Wayne time, and also reduces carbon and nitrous oxide emissions, which has environmental impacts.”

“Before we were boiling for about six to seven hours and the most we ever made was about six gallons of syrup in that time,” says Wayne. “The new one, during the same period of time, the biggest day we had was 22 gallons and we burnt a lot less wood,” he said. Wayne reports that with dry seasoned oak, he had up to 30 minutes of burn time for a single load of wood. With his older evaporator, he would have filled the firebox five times during that period.

A pan preheater was also added as part of the EQIP project. This device captures the heat generated from the evaporator steam to preheat the sap before it reaches the boiling pan, further increasing the efficiency of the process. “It helps bring the temperature of the raw sap from somewhere around 40 degrees Fahrenheit from the bulk tank, to over 100 degrees,”
explains Ebert. “This means the boiler doesn’t have to work as hard.” 

Part of that process causes the steam to condense on the cool supply lines as it transfers heat, which leads to hot, vapor-distilled water captured as a byproduct. That distilled water can then be used for many of the cleaning needs of the sugaring equipment. 

“Syrup making can be a sticky business,” says Ebert. “Since much of this vapor can now be used practically in the operation instead of wafting into the sky it reduces the use of other water sources for cleaning and maintaining the operation. It really is an energy win and water conservation win as well.” 

It even saves Wayne’s back a little by reducing the labor and time of splitting, stacking, drying and moving cord wood. “The reduced fuel usage saves money on fuel,” Ebert explains, “and whether you are buying firewood, or cutting, drying and stacking your own, you’ll certainly be moving a lot less of it – and that never hurts,” laughs Ebert.

“It’s definitely been worth it to us,” says Wayne, “we didn’t cut as much wood this year because we don’t need it like we have in the past.”

Under the incentive program, NRCS provides free technical assistance to producers to help with assessing their operation and making recommendations to improve efficiencies that have demonstrated environmental impacts. By utilizing NRCS financial assistance programs, such as EQIP, producers are provided an incentive by reimbursing them at a certain rate of the project cost after installation. 

“There are many other options to increase efficiencies in maple production,” explains Ebert, “everything from reducing boiling by concentrating sap through reverse osmosis machines, to installing preheaters or other energy efficient equipment upgrades. Often the opportunities start to snowball into other projects as producers start to understand what is available. We really can make a big impact for our maple producers under NRCS programs, I would encourage anyone who produces syrup to see what we can do for them – they might be surprised.”

In any event, the efficiency certainly makes a difference to the producer, increases the viability of the operation, saving time, fuel, labor and ensuring that the golden goodness of syrup can be sustainably produced to coat your weekend breakfast.

More Information

To learn more about NRCS programs, producers can contact their local USDA Service Center.  Producers can also apply for NRCS programs, manage conservation plans and contracts, and view and print conservation maps by logging into their farmers.gov account. If you don’t have an account, sign up today. 

For 90 years, NRCS has helped farmers, ranchers and forestland owners make investments in their operations and local communities to improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and wildlife habitat. NRCS uses the latest science and technology to help keep working lands working, boost agricultural economies, and increase the competitiveness of American agriculture. NRCS provides one-on-one, personalized advice and financial assistance and works with producers to help them reach their goals through voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs. For more information, visit nrcs.usda.gov.  

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.