Tasting Liquid Gold - Third Form Field Trip

Eaglebrook’s Third Form, sixth grade, is lucky to spend almost every Wednesday outside, exploring the many unique features of New England. At the end of March, the Third Formers traveled to Leverett, MA to explore the Field’s Sugarhouse. Jeff Field is a member of Eaglebrook’s maintenance staff and he is often seen around campus with a big smile on his face. Ben Field, Jeff’s younger son, is a member of the Third Form class who has a love for mountain biking and the outdoors. The Fields invited the Third Form to their house to see the process of making nature’s gold or maple syrup. The Field family has been sugaring for over 200 years at their location in Leverett and Ben will be the 7th generation of Fields to continue the sugaring tradition.

The Field family greeted the Third Formers when we arrived to their house and sugarhouse on a brisk Wednesday morning. The students explored the muddy woods and collected sap from many trees with Ben as their guide. The maple trees supplied the group with a great amount of sap and the students learned about the importance of the warm days and cold nights for the sap to flow. The student’s watched their progress as a large bin was filled with sap in the back of a pickup truck and then transported back to the sugarhouse.

In the sugarhouse, the group watched as Ben loaded the fire with wood and the sap boiled around the maze inside. They learned about the boiling process and watched in amazement as the bubbles rose to the top of the sides and went down with a little bit of butter. Ben’s mother, Jen, gave the students a history lesson about the family and showed them the different parts of the sugarhouse. The group stayed at the sugarhouse for a little over two hours and saw the amount of work that goes into the development of the delicious liquid gold. After a taste of the syrup the group returned to school and the Field family stayed to continue boiling well into the night.

The students returned with a new understanding of the maple syrup provided at breakfast three to four times a week at school. On average, the Eaglebrook kitchen uses five to six gallons of maple syrup each week. See photos from the trip to the Field Sugarhouse here, and learn more about the Third Form at Eaglebrook here.