QUITE POSSIBLY the last place in Vermont that you would look for a sugar house is in the middle of a village. But that is exactly what you will find on School Street in Northfield.

Bill Pemberton (center) takes a piece of wood for their sugaring arch from his wife Wynona (left) while their son Pat looks on. The Pemberton's have had their small sugar house on School Street since 1994 and make the syrup as gifts for family and friends. Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News Tucked behind Bill and Wynona Pemberton’s garage, and bordered in back by the Catholic Church, is a 12 by 16 foot shed with a low ceiling and a small “arch” for making maple syrup.

“People are really surprised when we tell them that we sugar in the village,” said Bill Pemberton.

The wood fired arch is known as a “hobby arch” and that name fits the bill for Bill Pemberton.

“This is the smallest you can get. It can take up to 50 taps. We only draw from 32 taps. We have 15 here in the back yard and 17 at my son Pat’s house in Northfield Falls,” Mr.

Pemberton said.

While 32 taps isn’t a commercial operation it gets the job done on School Street.

“We only make a few gallons a year. In our best year we made ten gallons. Usually it’s, a little under,” he said.

The Pemberton’s don’t make syrup for sale. They make it as gifts for family and friends and occasionally to barter.

“We have one guy who trades perch for syrup,” he said.

“Our syrup has gone to Chile, Japan and all over the USA. Our grandkids in Maryland and Florida love it,” Wynona added.

The sugaring process is labor intensive and no matter if you make 10 gallons or one hundred the process is the same.

The sap has to be gathered and then poured into the wood fired arch to boil out the water. “It takes between 30 and 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup, depending on the sweetness,” said Bill and Wynona’s son Pat .

The boiling process can take hours and the boiling, steaming liquid has to be continually monitored and the firebox has to be constantly fed.

Add that work to the gathering of the sap and that’s what makes the process so labor intensive. In order to literally keep the home fires burning the Pemberton’s rely on what they call “the night crew”.

Bill’s grandsons Jeff, Jason, and Christopher and family friends Nate Messier and Corey Bean all help out to keep the operation going.

Once the “arch has been fired up for a while and the sap has been boiling it has to be constantly monitored with a scoop to check and see when it can be drawn off as syrup. The syrup that has worked it’s way around the baffles of the pan to the draw off point drips off the scoop in an “apron” shape can be let out of the pan and be filtered for the first time. “We do it mostly by eye and by feel. We do have a hydrometer but usually I tell by the way it comes off the scoop, We draw off about a quart at a time.” Bill said. " If we can keep it going we can draw off about a quart every half hour," said Pat. Once the thick brown liquid has passed through the first filter Wynona gets involved. “She’s the tasting and packaging department,” said Pat. The hot syrup goes about 30 feet to the kitchen where Wynona brings it back up to a boil and filters it again before packaging it in half pint and pint plastic containers. “ She’s driving force behind this whole thing,” said Bill. “I’m the final judge of the syrup,” said Wynona.

When asked why she got to judge Wynona responded with a wry smile and a glint in her eye, “because I’m the only Ver- monter here,” she said.

When one considers that it takes a lot of effort to get the sap and between 6 and 7 hours to boil off 60 gallons of sap to make about a gallon and a half of syrup, one is moved to ask, Why? “I like to do it , and besides, It’s something to do before motorcycle season starts,” said Pat.

He should know. He's had plenty of sugaring experience. He worked in Wally Asletine’s sugar house for several years and really brought his experience home. Pat’s Dad, Bill Pemberton had some slightly different reasons. The WWII veteran thought for a moment and then said, “ Because it’s something to do. It’s fun. But mostly it’s a labor of love.”