Sugar maker Brad Presby educates and entertains at The Rocks Estate’s New Hampshire Maple Experience

The New Hampshire Maple Experience opens at The Rocks Estate this weekend, but for our resident sugar maker, the work – and joy – of making maple syrup is a year-round process. 

Sugar maker Brad Presby at work.

Brad Presby has been making maple syrup since before he can remember. He learned the tricks of the trade from his grandfather, Lester Presby, as a young boy, and he’s been hooked ever since.Brad manages some 1,200 taps and many miles of sap line at The Rocks Estate. 

Visitors to the Maple Experience will see this fourth-generation sugar maker in action – and be entertained by his funny and informative maple tales – at the Estate’s own sugar house.

Below, Brad shares a little about what he does at The Rocks during sugaring season and beyond.

What do you do at The Rocks during the Maple Experience?

Well, my wife calls me an ‘edutainer.’ I talk to people about sugaring in general, and specifically about the work done in the sugar house, where the sap is transformed into syrup. I talk about the process and the different grades of maple syrup. And I like to tell stories from my many years of sugaring. I’ve been at The Rocks since 1986 or ’87, when they started doing some small maple programs. Now I’m there weekends for the Maple Experience and really enjoy it.

How did you learn about sugaring?

My grandfather had a small dairy farm in Bath, New Hampshire, and was well known in the area. His old sugarhouse is still down there. He used to have 600-800 buckets, and he was one of the first ones around to use [plastic] tubing. We used to drive through the woods in a tractor to collect the sap, so I have a lot of experience in how to bury a tractor in the mud! Sugaring time is when the mud’s out.

Jo and Brad Presby work on the main sap line at The Rocks.

What’s made you stick with sugaring for so long, and how does that tie into your work at The Rocks?

I just like talking sugaring. I could go on all day about sugaring. It’s something that gets into your blood. It’s almost like an addiction, where every year I think, "How many more gallons of syrup can I make? How much more can I handle?"

When does the work for sugaring season begin?

You never really stop. In November and December, we check to make sure the sap lines haven’t been knocked down. Moose will walk right through an orchard and knock the lines down. Bear will chew on them. Coyotes will pull them down. Last year in May we had a snow storm that knocked the tubing down. So in the fall, we push the lines up so they don’t get buried when it starts to snow. 

In winter, before the sap starts to flow, we pull the lines down and check them to make sure there aren’t bites in them from squirrels or other critters. Sometime in February we start tapping the trees. You have to keep an eye on the weather. We like it to be fairly warm to tap the trees. If it’s too cold, you can split the tree. 

(See Brad and his wife, Jo Presby, at work in this video.) 

After we’re done sugaring, we go out and pull the taps, which allows the trees to heal quicker. And we check the lines again, feeling for cuts. Then we push the lines up high so the deer and moose can’t get to it as easily.

Sugaring has changed. You’re constantly monitoring what you’ve got, making more plans. There is no end of the season. It’s a constant thing. 

What do you do when you’re not sugaring – or thinking about sugaring?

Well, I’m retired. I used to work for the State of New Hampshire, Department of Resources and Economic Development. Now I manage the property and logging operations for my family. I’m kind of a woodsy guy. I have a portable sawmill. We always have projects going on. We never stop working on projects. 

To hear more of Brad’s maple sugaring stories and learn about the process of making maple syrup, come visit us at the New Hampshire Maple Experience. The Maple Experience runs March 15, 22-23, 29-30, and April 5. Find more information at NHMapleExperience.com or call (603) 444-6228 to make a reservation for the 2014 Maple Experience.

Spring brings return of NH Maple Experience to The Rocks

Maple syrup lovers, rejoice! The New Hampshire Maple Experience returns to The Rocks Estate March 15 and will run weekends through April 5.

Tapping a sugar maple at the NH Maple Experience

Anyone who’s visited during the Maple Experience in past years knows the event is a feast of the senses, with spectacular views, the heavenly sent of sap boiling into syrup, and – to top it all off – a syrup tasting, complete with fresh donuts and the requisite sour pickles.

Maple Experience visitors learn about the history of maple sugaring and are invited to jump right into the process by helping identify sugar maple trees, drill and tap them to collect sap, and fill a New Hampshire Maple Experience commemorative mason jar with warm syrup at our own sugar house.

While at the sugar house, guests will see fourth-generation sugar maker Brad Presby at work. Brad loves to spin a good yarn, and he’ll happily answer questions about his springtime work of making maple syrup and sugar.

Maple Experience tours also include a horse-drawn wagon ride through the Estate, with an interpretive guide on board each wagon to share information about sugaring and the history of The Rocks.

The New Hampshire Maple Experience runs March 15, 22-23, 29-30 and April 5, with tours scheduled throughout the day. Reservations are recommended and may be made by e-mailing info@therocks.org or calling 603-444-6228.

For more information about the Maple Experience, please check out the New Hampshire Maple Experience website.

Sugarhouse magic: from sap to maple syrup

Sugar maker Brad Presby in his element.

Watching the watery sap of sugar maple trees morph into sweet maple syrup is nothing short of magic. This magic show takes place each spring in sugarhouses nestled into forests throughout New England, including our own sugarhouse here at The Rocks Estate.

Rocks manager Nigel Manley explains how the maple magic happens, complete with fire and billowing steam:

The basics of maple sugaring include boiling sap for a long time until you are left with syrup. Of course, the process is a bit more complicated, and there are a lot of details that have to fit together just right to make sugaring successful.  

When I first came to The Rocks Estate, I watched syrup being made on an old arch (the part of the sugarhouse where the fire is) and evaporator (where the sap cooks down) in the original Electric Plant. As an avid photographer, I captured the equipment on camera. That turned out to be lucky for me, as the following season I had to assemble the arch and was able to use the photographs as a guide.

I had arrived from the UK not knowing what maple syrup was, never mind how to make it. I managed to get the sap lines up and tap the correct trees, but then was tasked with properly assembling the equipment of the sugarhouse. I had a friend help pick up the large back pan of the evaporator and set it in place. The front pan, or finishing pan, was lighter and could be placed easily. The float was a different story: I had to have the sap coming in quickly enough to keep the pans from burning, but not so quick as to be boiled off too slowly, which would create only dark syrup, rather than the more precious light maple syrup.

I managed to get the arch and pans working and actually made syrup, all while explaining to guests what I was doing! Still, something didn’t seem quite right. I finally realized it was my British accent; how can you possibly explain a northern New Hampshire tradition with a strong British accent?

A local sugarer, whose family has been making maple syrup for several generations, came to my rescue. Now, visitors to the New Hampshire Maple Experience tours learn the art of sugaring from Brad Presby, who is secure both in his Yankee ways and his good North Country vernacular.

Visit the New Hampshire Maple Experience this spring, and you’ll meet Brad at our sugarhouse, where he’ll show you the magic that is making maple syrup.

Last chance to get your Maple Experience!

This Saturday is the final day of the season for the New Hampshire Maple Experience at The Rocks Estate!

Join us for hands-on learning about the process and long tradition of maple sugaring. Along the way you’ll tour the beautiful and historic Rocks Estate via horse-drawn wagon, visit our on-site sugar house and learn from fourth generation maple sugarer Brad Presby, and enjoy delicious maple syrup samples.

If pancakes and syrup aren’t enough to satisfy your palate, you’ll want to time your visit to enjoy the maple cooking demonstration by Chef Kirk from the Sunset Hill House in Sugar Hill. He’ll be at the Maple Experience from noon-1 making Maple Marinated Barbeque Shrimp; an endive salad with candied pecans, dried cranberries, and crumbled goat cheese and topped with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette; and Maple Shortbread.

(For these recipes and others featured during past Maple weekends, check out the recipe page on the New Hampshire Maple Experience website.)

To find out more about the Maple Experience and all it includes, please visit the New Hampshire Maple Experience website. We hope to see you Saturday for the Maple Experience!