Back to My Roots; A Sweeter Approach to Life
Growing up as a Vermonter, maple syrup is pretty engrained in one’s life. Whether you had friends and families that sugared, enjoyed taking in the scenery of changing leaves in Autumn, visited sugar shacks and their sweet aroma of boil days in the Spring, or even if you just had it as a staple part of your breakfast- maple is a cultural identity of Vermont. It had remained an abstract part of my life until the late winter of 2018, when my best friend provided me an opportunity to move back to my hometown to help start a new brand and distillery from the ground up. Learning from the expertise of former Master Distiller Duncan Holaday, those first few months immersing myself in the storied process of tapping maple trees gave me a newfound appreciation for my home, and for the products we were creating for our communities to enjoy.
One of the elements that stood out to me the most was the sheer amount of work and effort it takes to produce even a modest amount of finished syrup; trudging along icy hillsides, repairing holes and marks in the lines left behind from critters with a sweet tooth, the patience of waiting for the sap to boil and maintaining the fire, and then repeating the process for weeks at a time. We would strap on snowshoes and spend hours walking through the woods looking for downed lines, carefully stretching out new sections of tubing to allow gravity to bring the sap from the trees to the bottom of the hill for collection. We would absorb the knowledge Duncan shared with us of where and how to tap trees in new spots, to ensure we weren't hurting the tree and to allow for the optimum amount of sap to flow. After a few slips and bruised knees we determined that even snowshoes and boot trax didn’t make us immune to the inclement landscape. And then there’s Mother Nature, whose weather conditions could change our plans for repair work, or later on for the sap to flow, affecting the amount of yield regardless of the months of preparation.
All this- several months’ worth of work, time, and energy, only to realize that what we produced was a modicum of maple syrup compared to the sugaring operations in nearby hillscapes. But regardless of the volume, the effort and connection to our home was what was really striking, and ultimately rewarding. That same level of care was put into the fermentation and production process of the artisanal spirits Duncan was teaching us. As we transitioned into a newer, bigger facility we took with us that mindset of craftsmanship, purpose, and intent. From the indigenous Abenaki tribe’s process of tapping trees to the economic force that it is today, maple is synonymous with the history of Vermont, and those roots in tradition are mirrored in our identity here at St. Johnsbury Distillery.
Written by Greg Piper