In just my lifetime, I have seen sugaring season (time when we begin tapping our trees) move from early March to mid February.Over the last decade, many sugarmakers recognized that WE contribute to the problem as well. And while we do still occasionally burn wood in the original sugarhouse during annual maple weekends, at Coombs Family Farms, we long ago shifted away from wood fired evaporators to energy saving reverse osmosis machines and vacuum tube systems. The result has been over a 90% decrease in energy and carbon emissions at our farm alone (over 1,955,000 lbs). And many other sugar makers are doing the same.

As for the elaborate tubing systems? They use gravity to help transport instead of trucks. We need to remember, change starts with us.

Arnold Coombs, Coombs Family Farms Organic Maple