by Elise Tillinghast Winter 2023

Sugaring with Brookfield Bees

Members of the Brookfield Bees sugaring crew enjoy a trailer ride on Kibbee Road Extension. Photos by Ben DeFlorio.

Brookfield Bees is a small farm located in central Vermont and owned by married couple Dan Childs and Marda Donner, who moved from Philadelphia to Vermont in 2007. The farm produces honey, apple cider, and an annual yield of approximately 80 to 100 gallons of maple syrup. Each February, Marda, Dan, Dan’s brother Norris, and several neighbors come together to collect and boil sap. The sugaring operation includes 125 pails hung on trees along two roads, as well as a network of tubing, attached to 500 taps, that runs from the forest into the sugarhouse.

Photographer Ben DeFlorio visited Brookfield Bees early in the 2023 sugaring season and captured these images, excerpts of which appear in the Winter 2023 issue of Northern Woodlands magazine. Special thanks to the Bailey Charitable Foundation for making this photo series possible.

Sugar Season at Brookfield Bees Gallery

Sugaring with Brookfield Bees Photo: Ben DeFlorio

Norris Childs helps fetch firewood for the arch. The map over his head, which was made by one of Dan and Marda’s daughters, is entitled, “The Great Honey Hunt.” It shows all the places that the couple have collected honey, as of about 6 years ago. “We have hundreds of times more honey than when she made that map,” said Dan. | Photo: Ben DeFlorio

Colin Duclos prepares to drill a hole into a tree, supervised by (left to right) Toby and Adeline Malone, and Duclos’s sons, Silas and Asa. Duclos is crouching down to drill the hole because he’s standing on about 2 feet of snow and wants the tap to still be in easy reach when the snow melts away at the end of the season. | Photo: Ben DeFlorio

Dan Childs adds wood to the arch. In a typical sugaring season, Brookfield Bees uses approximately seven cords of wood, which Childs mostly collects from already fallen trees. “The nice thing about sugaring,” he said, “is it uses up all the crappy wood – poplar and other stuff that you don’t burn in the house anyway.” | Photo: Ben DeFlorio

A view of sap in the evaporator pan. The frothy, small bubbles in the center lane of the pan indicate that this sap will be syrup soon. According to Vermont requirements, the accepted density range for Vermont syrup is between 66.9 and 68.9 Brix at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. One Brix is equivalent to one percent sugar content. | Photo: Ben DeFlorio

Childs performs a scoop test. When he sees that the sap is holding together – “sheeting off” – as it falls from the scoop edge, he knows it’s time to do a more precise hydrometer test. A heat thermometer, visible in the foreground (facing away from the camera), also helps the crew to monitor sap temperature in the pan. | Photo: Ben DeFlorio

Childs tests for Brix using a hydrometer, which uses buoyancy (how deeply the hydrometer sits in its metal cup) to precisely compare the temperature of the syrup at the time it comes off the pan, with its density at that temperature. When the syrup surface lines up with the “hot line” on the hydrometer, Childs will know that the sap has reached the right Brix to become syrup. He uses a spigot to release syrup from the center lane of the evaporator into a bucket, which he then pours into a “canner” (smaller tank) for filtering. | Photo: Ben DeFlorio

Childs has just poured diatomaceous earth (DE) into a canner full of recently boiled syrup. The canner is attached by tubing to a filter press on the right. The syrup and DE are siphoned back and forth through the press, where both the DE and any impurities are caught in filter paper. | Photo: Ben DeFlorio

A syrup grading kit. Brookfield Bees produces very little early season syrup, what by new Vermont standards is termed Golden/Delicate and has the least maple flavoring. Childs estimates that in a typical season, the farm produces approximately 25 gallons of Amber/Rich, and most of the remainder is Dark/Robust. At the end of the season, the farm produces a small amount of Very Dark/Strong, which is often used for cooking. | Photo: Ben DeFlorio

In addition to maintaining 22 hives (because, he said, 23 would be “too much work”), Dan Childs collects samples from other honey producers. He’s fascinated by the diversity of honey flavors. “We have thousands of samples from every state, from all over the world,” he said. “You just take a little popsicle stick and try as many as you want.” | Photo: Ben DeFlorio

by Elise Tillinghast

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Sugaring with Brookfield Bees

Sugar Season at Brookfield Bees Gallery

by Elise Tillinghast

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