New Milford farm to showcase maple sugaring operation
By Deborah Rose
An upcoming New Milford event will serve as the promise that soon buds will adorn the now-bare tree branches.
Come March 15-16, Sullivan Farm at 109 Park Lane Road (Route 202) will hold its annual Maple Fest, a family-oriented event that not only celebrates the history of maple sugaring but the sampling of the product itself.
It will be open March 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and March 16 from noon to 5 p.m.
The event, held just days for the official first day of spring at the farm’s Great Brook Sugarhouse, attracts several hundred people from near and far. Visitors from New York City and beyond attend, according to Mark Mankin, the farm’s administrator/day supervisor.
It is one of many maple sugaring events held throughout the state at this time of year – maple sugar season in Connecticut.
“We’re a little bit different (than others in the state) in that we offer a historical tour through from sugaring to making syrup,” Mankin said, noting attendees are invited to take an approximate half-hour guided tour with student-interns through the historic periods of maple sugaring.
The first stop explores the origin of maple sugaring techniques by indigenous people. After, the Colonial-era is discussed, focusing on how European techniques were added to maple sugaring productivity.
The next stop is the late 1800s. Tour guides showcase the farm’s original flat pan evaporator. The last stop is the current sugar house.
As a bonus, attendees will have an opportunity to sample both maple sugar and maple syrup.
Maple products will be available to purchase on site.
Deborah Rose/Great Brook Sugarhouse at Sullivan Farm in New Milford produces maple syrup. Maple Fest, where patrons can tour the sugarhouse, will be held March 15-16, 2025.
Deborah Rose/Cameron Goethner, of Washington, left, and Mason Sampson, of Brookfield, load a Gator UTV with buckets to hang from the spouts to be tapped into sugar maple trees at the farm Feb. 21, 2025.
The event has been a staple at the farm for some 10-15 years, Mankin said.
“I believe it’s going to be a really good year,” Mankin said optimistically. “A lot of things you really need to fall into place have happened. We’ve had an extensive cold period, there’s a lot of frost in the ground, and we’ve got snow cover. It’s the contrast between the cold in root system and the warmth on branches during the day because that’s what drives” a good season.
“Unfortunately, it was really dry this fall,” he said. “You need moisture in the ground. But we’re hoping the other factors lined up, and it could be a fairly decent year.”
Mankin said the sugar content from sap should be around 3 percent, and a few trees he and staff recently checked have sap that “was up there….we hope it will stay that way.”
Putting it together
The sugar house was moved from the former Larson Farm, the property on which New Milford High School is situated at 388 Danbury Road (Route 7), to Sullivan Farm just over 20 years ago, recalled Mankin.
Several of the individuals involved with moving the sugar house north seven miles from its original location are still a part of the farm in a variety of ways.
“It’s kind of neat because… they bring their kids here now,” Mankin said.
A combination of high school and college students work at the farm, which dates back to 1841. Some of the staff are agriculture students from neighboring towns, while others just enjoying working on the self-sustaining farm.
The farm was purchased by the Town of New Milford in 1997 and operated under the Youth Agency until June 2020 when the Town Council approved the farm to run itself.
As a teen, Youth Agency Executive Director Jason O’Connor worked at the farm and helped with the sugaring program. Today, the Youth Agency assists with transportation for some local childcare centers that take trips to the farm to experience the sugaring process.
“Being 16-17 and working (at the farm) has benefits,” O’Connor said. “You can build relationships with both students that age and older college students, and adult staff. Those students are now teaching the younger kids.”
O’Connor described the mentorship relationship between the high school- and college-aged staff and the youth that attend the event.
“There are little kids coming through and it’s not just adults talking to the kids,” he said. You’re getting a beneficial experience for those older students to mentor younger students... they’re a role model. And the younger kids are looking up and hanging out with safe and fun individuals.”
“It provides a space and opportunities where the New Milford community can show fun, safe activities – destinations – where families can come and learn about the New Milford heritage,” O’Connor said.
Local production
Maple syrup is made from sap, the slightly sweet liquid tapped from maple trees.
The star of the maple season is the sugar maple, but three other species can also be tapped, the silver, red and black maple.
Maple trees are primarily found in the northeastern United States, including Connecticut, and eastern Canada.
Sullivan Farm taps about 1,700 trees in Kent/South Kent and another 120 at the 109-acre farm in New Milford. Only sugar maples are tapped.
The number of trees tapped doesn’t necessarily translate into a good maple sugaring season. Several factors, primarily temperature, can make or break a season.
Production is “basically guided by temperature,” Mankin said. “You need 40-50s during the day but need it to go back below freezing at night to trigger it.”
He related that the temperature has “changed dramatically” over the past fix or six years, thus the tapping of trees and their output has been impacted.
Mankin said 10 years ago, the farm averaged 300-400 gallons of maple syrup per year. However, the last few years it has been “lucky to get 150-160 gallons.”
Sugaring is usually done in mid-February, with the season running through March. However, the farm tapped trees in January last year.
Temporal shifts in sugaring raise concerns among farmers and scientists. A predicted geographical shift is even more alarming. Studies from several universities report that there may be little sugaring in Connecticut 10 years from now, Mankin related.
Studies show the region of maximum sap flow will shift northward by 250 miles by the year 2100.
Mankin emphasized the process for sugaring is important and certain steps must be taken
“We go out in summer and fall to monitor trees, and there are just a lot of trees we just don’t tap anymore,” he said, referring to the trees’ delicate nature.
While many of the trees tapped by the farm in Kent/South Kent are no longer used for maple sugaring, the 120 sugar maples now tapped in New Milford are a fairly recent discovery.
Cameron Goethner, a 2024 graduate of Shepaug Agriscience Academy in Washington, completed his high school Supervised Agricultural Experience about maple sugaring.
He was motivated to focus on forestry through his work on the farm since 2021. His project explored and included, among other things, the history of maple sugaring and ways to collect it.
He traveled to sites in New England to learn from working maple sugaring farms. In addition, he spent an entire day with a Connecticut Forester with whom Goethner identified a concentration of maple trees that had been overlooked due to invasive trees.
The areas with the sugar maples were thinned out to “improve the health of the trees and make it more visually appealing,” said Goethner, who with other workers did the manual labor.
“I had a lot of fun,” he said.
Deborah Rose/Sullivan Farm staffer Mason Sampson, of Brookfield, prepares one of the tools used to tap a maple sugar tree at the farm Feb. 21, 2025.
Deborah Rose/Cameron Goethner, of Washington, taps the first sugar maple of the day Feb. 21, 2025, at Sullivan Farm on Route 202 in New Milford.
Deborah Rose/Cameron Goethner, of Washington, taps the first sugar maple of the day Feb. 21, 2025, at Sullivan Farm on Route 202 in New Milford.
Deborah Rose/The first bucket to collect sugar maple sap is placed Feb. 21, 2025, at Sullivan Farm in New Milford.
Deborah Rose/A bucket to collect sugar maple sap is placed Feb. 21, 2025, at Sullivan Farm in New Milford.
Deborah Rose/Cameron Goethner, of Washington, taps a sugar maple Feb. 21, 2025, at Sullivan Farm on Route 202 in New Milford.
Deborah Rose/Maple sap immediately begins to make its way down thee spout after the spout was tapped into a sugar maple tree at Sullivan Farm Feb. 21, 2025.
Deborah Rose/Nic Colangelo, who will graduate from high school this year, taps one of the 100-plus sugar maples on the property at Sullivan Farm in New Milford. Feb. 21, 2025.
