Our Trip to the Sugar Shack – Beaman’s Maple Camp
2013
We took mom out to the Beaman’s Sugar Shack last weekend and it was a great trip. It brought back memories of when I was young. My parents often brought me in the spring to the Beaman’s sugar camp. The camp is what they actually call it. There are lots of sugar shacks, or camps, around here just outside of the city and some people are quite loyal, have their favorite maple provider and buy from the same family each year.
My family has been buying for Beaman’s for years. Helen (Mrs. Beaman) told me stories of when my mom and dad first went together there. One day they went and they were so busy that mom and dad had to bottle their own. They used funnels back then. The Beaman’s have been doing this for 7 generations now, and it recently was just passed down to one of the sons. Even though it sounds like the production process has advanced a lot in the last few years, it feels like stepping back in time about 100 years going there.
I’m excited to bring you on this journey and our first step was to find it.
The adventure of getting there!
Last week, I called Mrs Beaman, Helen, to order a case of syrup, 2 actually, one for my brother. She tells me all about the season and the frost and how production is going. Nature can be a crazy and quirky thing to work with. She tells me that they are sugaring off this coming Saturday and making candy on the snow for the kids and that I should come and bring Mom out. It may happen again the following week, but maybe not, it all depends on the weather.
I decide right away that’s a great idea (candy on the snow!! ..my kid eyes lit up) and I got general directions from her on the phone. I figured I could Google it, right? No, not so easy to find even there. So I called and got directions from my brother. He tried to find it on Google and couldn’t even Google Earth it! So, he gives me directions on the phone.. You go out this road to Salisbury about 15 to 20 kilometers, turn at the white church, drive into the country about another 15 to 20 kilometers and you come to a fork in the road, take the right.. no, there’s no name on the road but there’s a really old general store out there and you can stop and ask where the Beaman’s camp is. We have the general location (so we think) on our ipad and we figure at least it will be a good adventure to see if we can find it. Oh, and the camp is not right on the road.. you have to go down a road into the woods to get to it.
Another friend came who had a pretty good idea of where we were going and felt quite confident about it all. But, long story short.. we got lost. I was sure it would come back to mom and she would guide us. She is usually quite good at that. But she didn’t seem to recognize where we were at all. So, I am not even sure where we were.. there’s a lot of crazy roads in the woods out there. But at some point I see someone coming out of a house. We stop and I go ask.
“Yes, I know exactly where it is and in fact we are just heading there.” Wow. I figured that had to be divine intervention. Awesome. They led us straight there. A bunch of cars were parked along the road and there was a blue rope, like a clothes line, tied to guide you down to the road to get in.
Arriving at the Sugar Shack
(soundtrack starts here.. do you remember the song?)
The pictures start from here. This is the road going down to the sugar shack, and there it is. Lots of steam was coming up from the roof. They were in full production.
Along the way you can see lots of buckets hanging from trees collecting sap. Not sure if I should spoil the illusion but these are there mainly for show they told us. Many trees now have pipes attached which run down hills, via gravity, to collect in big drums.
The season is quite short as well. The sap usually starts running in late March, sometimes early April. This year looks like a good season. Ideal conditions are that the ground is covered in snow to keep the tree roots cold at night, and the temperature during the day should warm up to about five degrees. This year looks good. Thankfully, as our season in New Brunswick last year was affected by a severe ice storm in February. Many producers had low supply as well as considerable amounts of damage to their lines and trees.
This is the sap that comes from the trees. It is very watery. It has a very subtle taste, like sweet water and it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.
We had perfect timing getting there. They were just about to make candy on the snow and people had just started gathering around the spot. I hear that making candy can be hard to do as the maple can burn easily. I guess they have it down to a science. It has always seemed perfect, and was again this time.
Above you can see.. they clear away some snow to a fresh level patch and ladle out the candy syrup from the bucket. It sits a minute, but not long, and starts to harden. They started tearing off pieces before it was even hard to pass out to the kids gathered around first. I thought it may just be for kids.. but there was lots for everyone, and I couldn’t resist!
So delicious! Brought me straight back to my childhood! They also have thick wooden sticks with handles, that are hand carved and that they dip in the candy syrup and when it dries give to the kids. I saw some kids running around with these when we first got there. I remembered that from when I was young too. Heaven!
This is the actual sugar shack where the syrup is boiled and made. Come check it out!
This is the huge boiler. I am not sure what it is actually called. But this is where the sap gets boiled down into syrup, and then it gets boiled down even further to make maple butter, which comes in a tub and you can eat it with a spoon. Then comes maple cream, which gets formed into a block. You can cut slices of it with a knife or break it off to eat. Finally they make the translucent, dark brown, almost see through and super sweet maple candy. It’s way too decadent and temping and is a once a year thing for me.
Tap on the side for the finished syrup or candy.
In the next room is another older wood burning boiler, boiling sap.
And through a door behind it is where they keep huge wood piles.
We left after checking out how it was all being made and went to the camp, where they were selling the maple products. Behind the door was this article from the paper about the family business.
We waited, but Helen insisted we go into the draped curtain to the kitchen and wait for her. What an awesome big kitchen. About 8 to 10 people were already in there, kids in arms sleeping. A lot of family. I just took a picture of the wood stove. I loved it. I love the smell of a wood stove, maybe it’s memories from my childhood too. ..or maybe it just smells great.
We had left mom outside sketching when we went in to get our syrup. I went out to get her to say hi to Helen.. she was still sketching. I think mom was born with a sketchbook in her hand. She often looks like this. 
So, after a visit, the guys had already brought the cases of syrup to our car, we were on our way home again.
New Brunswick is the third largest maple producer in the world. Maple syrup can differ in taste depending on the region. The climate, soil and forest of our east coast region combine to provide a delicious maple sap, which creates a unique and flavorful syrup that’s renowned around the world. All Canadian maple syrup is delicious, but we’re kind of proud of our own.
