Page 4 - BusinessWest February 17, 2025

Tapping into Tradition
Fifth Generation of Williams Farm Sugarhouse Continues Sweet Story
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
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hip Williams has his eye on the weather reports around Deerfield. He’s not looking for long stretches of mild weather, or cold, for that matter. He wants both. Every day.
That’s because sugar maple trees in this region are tapped beginning in late February, and temperatures are critical for sap produc- tion — specifically fluctuating temps, with the ideal conditions being nights in the low 20s followed by days in the 40- to 45-degree range. This freeze-thaw cycle is necessary because, as the temperature warms, the
ice inside the trunk melts, and the ice-com- pressed gases expand, forcing the sap out of the trunk.
“It’s all temperature-dependent. We need the right weather, and when I say right weather, it’s the freezing and thawing cycles. If we have that for an extended period of time, we’ll have a decent season,” said Wil- liams, who is part of the fifth generation operating Williams Farm Sugarhouse, which starts selling maple syrup — and breakfast — to the public on Feb. 21.
“What often happens is a week of warm and then a week of cold, longer cycles of ups and downs,” he noted, “but we really want a freeze at night, warm during the day, freeze at night, warm during the day, and not so much warm for a week and then cold for a week.”
The reason, he said, is that the sap flows only on a warm-up. “So, after a freeze, that next day, when it warms up, it’ll flow, but it’ll only flow for a certain amount of time before you need it to freeze again. If it warms up and stays warm, it’ll run for a little while, and then you won’t get anything.”
That thermometer watching is just one of many challenges he and his sisters, Kelly Scofield and Casey Williams, take on when they work at the sugarhouse every spring. They all have regular jobs — Chip is the ath- letic grounds supervisor at Deerfield Acad- emy, while Kelly and Casey work in hotel management in Eastern Mass. — but the maple-syrup season is a labor of love for the siblings, who are also joined by their father, Sandy, who comes up from Florida during tapping and boiling season.
It’s also a tradition for plenty of local fami- lies as well, in a region that boasts a number of sugarhouses, few with as long a history as this one. The facility is open Friday through Sunday for pancakes, french toast, waffles, and more, all topped with that fresh maple syrup. And if they like what they taste, they
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Chip Williams (pictured) and his sisters represent the fifth generation making maple syrup at the family’s sugarhouse.