Work detail provides fellowship event
Locally, the sap has stopped flowing, and it is time once again for Kingston Rotarians and their friends and families to clean up the over 500 sap pails and their lids.
The sugar bush on the property of Kingston Rotarian, Bernie Robinson, annually produces approximately 30 artisanal gallons of Maple syrup.
Robinson, shuns the more modern flow lines and prefers to stick with the more traditional sap buckets of yesteryears.
Put together by member Mike Wilson, the first attempt stalled when the day dawned with snow, rain and cold. One o’clock on Good Friday proved cool but sunny and about a couple of dozen volunteer’s showed up to help clean.
The pails and their tops had been gathered in, the washing and rinsing tubs filled with water, towels gathered to dry and the storage shed prepared. Folks were hard to clean, rinse and dry the pails before placing them in the small storage shack.
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| | Pail lids stacked to be cleaned |
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Overview of cleaning and rinsing troughs | Overview from the other side. |
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Changing the water in the rinsing trough. |
| Carrying the rinsed pails to the drying wagon. |
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Drying the buckets with tea towels |
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In addition Bernie’s employees washed and cleaned the sugar making machinery plus the wood burning boiler.
While inside the “shack” a small team boiled and sanitized the all important spigots.
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Boiling the spigots to sanitize them for next year. |
| Transferring the spigots to the sink |
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After boiling the spigots were placed in the sink for sorting, repairing and placed out to dry. |
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Rotarians Bernie and Mike are now organizing an evening barbecue to be held at the sugar shack as a thank-you to the volunteers.
