Old Pound Road Sugar House was started by forester Charlie Levesque in 2003 after Charlie had been making maple products at other locations for almost 15 years. The sugar house design, all made from locally sawed lumber, was intended to have an old-time feel with a modern facade that evokes something spiritual as a result of custom glass panels made by a local glass artist. The setting is intimate, and with partner son Galen Kilbride taking on a stronger role in the operations in recent years, a family atmosphere. Son Ben Kilbride also helps some and mom Noreen Kilbride is behind the scenes making the sugar-makers lives easier during the busy sugaring season from February to early April. Below are some of the many scenes of the Old Pound Road Sugar House season.
While we don't always get beautiful boiling days like this at Old Pound Road Sugar House, when we do it is special.Proprietors Galen Kilbride and Charlie Levesque share the sugar house. A key part of the fun of maple syrup making is sharing it with others. Here a local school group spends a few hours at the sugar house in March, learning all about how its done. Some nice drawings came back from this group afterwards.The season starts with work on the sap lines in January and then tapping in February. Galen's 6'4" height helps him get in a tall one.While we only have a few sap buckets for the kids visiting to see, collecting sap comes in spurts - when the sap flows as weather turns to the 40s after cold nights. We are ready to boil when we have collected at least 500 gallons of sap after a run. A 1000 gallon run is a big one for Old Pound Road Sugar House.Once we get the sap to the sugar house, then its time to boil! We often boil for 7-10 hours at a time. When sap comes, sugar makers want to boil it as soon as possible before it starts to go bad. That means boiling whenever Mother Nature tells us too, Here Galen and Charlie oversee an 8 hour boil in mid-March.And boiling doesn't always happen during the day.The end of the process is when we pour piping hot maple syrup into jugs. Here Galen bottles a half-gallon.We also make maple candy and maple cream at Old Pound Road Sugar House. Here we are pouring candy into maple molds. To make candy and cream we simply boil the syrup longer to remove more of the water. The result is delicious!A happy customer leaves Old Pound Road Sugar House.
