BURLINGTON – Lamothe’s Sugar House started in 1971 with seven experimental taps and a dream: to learn how to make a maple syrup.
This year, they have 56 taps, said Robert Lamothe, founder. Every tap produces a quart of syrup. It takes 43 gallons of boiled and evaporated sap to get one gallon of syrup.
This time of year, the tradition — and the boiling — start anew.
Lamothe's will be open for tours as part of the statewide Maple Weekend March 15 and 16, when sugarhouses statewide offer tours so maple-lovers can see their work in action.
This year has been more of a traditional cold New England winter than the past couple years, Robert said. Ideal weather for tapping trees goes down to about 20 degrees at night and reaches 40 degrees by noon the following day, so the Lamothes started tapping the third week of February, when temperatures began to warm in the afternoon.
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The Stone Road property consists of five acres. The Lamothes also lease trees for tapping on adjoining state property and tap trees on a property in New Hartford. They also produce and sell honey, but this time of year, it's all about maple, deliciously sweet and ready for pancakes, to replace sugar in coffee and baking recipes, or to sweeten marinade for chicken on the grill. It's such a beloved sweet ingredient, the online allrecipes features page after page of ways to use maple in cooking and baking.
'I don't know anything about maple syrup'
Last Tuesday, Robert and his brother Leonard Lamothe, Lamothe’s logistics coordinator, recalled their early 1970s beginnings.
Robert had purchased some taps and put them on the kitchen counter, where they remained for nearly a year. Curiously, Leonard picked them up one day and, after learning what they were, suggested they make maple syrup.
“I said, 'What are you, crazy?'” Robert said. “I don’t know anything about maple syrup.”
With two young children, though, he thought it would make a good family project. They already grew their own food, so it fit their lifestyle. He went to the library, took out a book on the subject and started reading.
Soon, they were making syrup for the family.
Using a drill connected by an extension cord, the brothers drilled holes in trees and collected sap in buckets. For the first couple years, they boiled it outside in a homemade backyard evaporator arch with flat restaurant pans sitting above a fire.
“We got snowed on. We got rained on,” Robert said. “I think sometimes we got more snow in the pans than the sap we were boiling.”
They got tips from maple syrup maker Newell Atwood of New Hartford, who Robert said is now his best friend.
A couple years in, after Robert tired of dealing with the weather, they transformed a shed into a small sugarhouse, bought an evaporator and moved the operation inside.
“It was great we have, electricity we have lights, we have hot and cold running water,” Robert said. “I had a radio and I’m playing ZZ Top and I’m boiling at night. It was fun. It was really fun.”
'This is a labor of love' with work at all hours
One day in the 1980s, a gentleman walked up to the sugarhouse from the road and asked if he could buy some maple syrup. Robert ran to the house, sanitized a mason jar and filled it with his brew.
It was Lamothe’s first sale.
“He was happy. I was happy,” Robert said. “I said, I know now we can make a business out of it.”
In 1974, they opened to the public and began allowing folks to observe the operation.
They collected 160 buckets of sap at night, pouring them into 7-gallon milk jugs and bringing them to the sugarhouse in an old Dodge truck, and later a 1980 Chevy Citation hatchback.
“We thought we were cool,” Leonard said. “We were doing it up.”
By 1988, demand for the sweet concoction had increased and they were outgrowing the small sugarhouse. “I said, 'Let’s build a new sugarhouse,” Robert said. “Everybody thought I had rocks in my head because it’s so big.”
They built the 3,800-square-foot, three-story building with a retail space on one side and a kitchen and evaporator on the other themselves. In 2008, they expanded the store.
Thousands of people visit during Saturday free tour hours, Robert said. They make sure to have free lollipops, maple coffee and mulled cider on hand.
Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops come round every sugaring season and now, scouts are coming with their own children. From the 1970s until 2000, Robert juggled work at the sugarhouse with his job as a tool and die maker at Hamilton Standard. Since then, he has been full-time at the sugarhouse.
Leonard is retired from the city of Bristol, where he worked for the Parks & Recreation Department. He is also a member of the city’s Board of Parks Commissioners.
They share a love for making syrup.
“This is a labor of love,” Robert said. “You don’t look at the clock. You don’t say it’s 5 o’clock in the morning. You have to have a passion. You have to have the enthusiasm. It’s got to be in your veins. It’s got to be in your blood.”
Lamothe's offers tours on Saturdays at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday March 15 and 16 during the Statewide Maple Weekend.
Maple Weekend events in Connecticut
During the Maple Weekend, sugarhouses across the state are open for tours. For a list of participants visit ctmaple.org.
Other maple activities, according to CT Visit include:
Hebron Maple Festival in the town of Hebron on March 15 and 16
Syrup Saturday: A Pancakes & PJs Party at New Canaan Nature Center, New Canaan on March 15
Plymouth Maple Festival at Plymouth Congregational Church, 10 Park St., Plymouth on March 8
Pancake Breakfast and Maple Sugaring Demonstration at Indian Rock Nature Preserve, Bristol on March 8
Maple Festival, Classes and Tours at Sweet Wind Farm, East Hartland through April
Maple Sugar Fest Sundays at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center, March 9 and 16
Maple Sugar House Demonstrations and the Woodbury Sugar Shed, Saturdays and Sundays in March by appointment
Tap-a-Tree Maple Sugaring Program at Ambler Farm, Wilton from through mid-March
Adopt-a-Tree: Maple Syrup Program, at the New Canaan Nature Center, in New Canaan, kicked off January 25 and runs through March.