A communal place

I visited the Three Dog Winery sugar shack about two weeks ago. Bakkus, a rescued golden retriever, kept watch. John fed the fire while Sacha tidied up after the day’s visitors. I wanted to learn about boiling sap, but instead learned of a school fighting to survive.

Three Dog Winery got a new maple syrup evaporator this year. A truck hauled it to the farm. A sled slid it through the vineyard and 15-acre sugarbush. The last 20 feet were the hardest. Isolated and without heavy equipment, a group of friends inched it into the sugar shack. Up and over. Up and over.

John and Sacha purchased their farm on Fish Lake Road in 2000. They planted pinot noir all summer. They tended soil all fall. They snowshoed, skied and hiked their way through winter. As weather warmed, they began collecting and boiling sap. Ten buckets seemed a good start.

Their spring activity blossomed into a hobby. Sap flowed freely. Sacha and John collected each tree’s giving then combined the sap in 20-litre buckets for the drive home to Rosehall.

Have you ever driven with a trunkful of maple sap? I imagine John took corners gently. At home, a stockpot boiled sap into syrup —filling the air with its scent.

As more vines were planted, more trees were tapped. John and Sacha sold their home in Rosehall and moved to the farm. Did the agent advertise as “maple infused”?

They spent most of their time farming and fermenting, but for a few weeks each spring they tended the boil. Their first dedicated evaporator was a converted furnace with a flat pan on top. It was blessed by its lack of insulation. Hot sides roasted marshmallows and warmed hands. A tent was built around the evaporator. With time, the tent was replaced by a sugar shack. The old furnace replaced by their new evaporator. Friends remained the constant; a stove is a communal place.

As the fire burned down, our conversation drifted away from syrup. John told me that Sophiasburgh Central School is scheduled to close. When a school closes, a town dies. There’s a push to save the school, but it needs more support.

The plan is nestled in a common truth; that a stove is a communal place. The County Food Hub will be a community kitchen located inside Sophiasburgh Central School. It will launch local businesses and support families.

The County Food Hub isn’t a reality yet. They’ve spent the past year planning and are now in a critical fundraising stage. If they succeed, a school is saved and a community grows. John and Sacha are fighting for the County Food Hub. On Easter Saturday, Three Dog Winery is hosting a fundraising party with music, food and wine.

But first it’s time for Maple in the County. This weekend I’ll see marshmallows roasting around the fire and be reminded that the stove is a communal place. Students at Sophiasburgh Central know that. It’s why they want to open a community kitchen. They’ve made it this far; now they need your help to inch it into place.