Maple Syrup 'Boil-Down'

 

Today we visited Colvin Run Mill near Great Falls to see a demonstration of the stages of making maple syrup.

 

Quite a crowd had gathered to learn about how the sap is tapped from the trees - we saw a tap and collecting pan near the mill..

 

The sap is a thin, clear, almost tasteless, liquid - 98% water and so it has to be boiled down over many hours to create a syrup.

 

This boiling pan takes 18 gallons of sap but will only yield three or four pints of actual syrup.  

 

We had the opportunity to taste some cornbread with maple syrup which was very good, before walking down to look at the mill itself.

 

The mill race is drained for the winter but in March the mill will operate on alternate weekends.  It was used as a commercial mill for grinding corn and grain until 1931.

 

The mill stones are made from a series of pieces of stone imported from France.

 

By contrast the external and internal mechanisms are made of locally grown wood..

 

The mill has been beautifully restored and is carefully maintained.  As the flour and grits that are milled here are offered for sale to visitors, we were told that each working of the mill requires several days of preparation and cleaning to bring it up to a suitable standard of food hygiene.

 

We plan to visit again when the mill is running.  In the meantime we called into the mill shop - an original building which was moved from across the road and which operated as a country store and post office from the early 1900's.