# 3 Maple Orchard

Last Updated on February 1, 2021

As you begin to walk, look to your right, north, up Hurry Hill, to see the maple orchard the current Hurry Hill Farm owners began planting in 1998.  Hurry Hill has an interest in sustainable agriculture, so by establishing a maple orchard we have preserved sugaring for future generations.  Five-year-old sugar maple and black maple trees were transplanted to the site on April 1st of that year.  These specimens were from an old sugar bush just north of here, where members of the Harned family tapped its trees for many generations.  David and Georgie Knight left a wonderful legacy, having donated the trees for the orchard.

The maple orchard required diligent watering, summers, throughout at least the first two years of its establishment.  Protecting trees’ bark from deer who rub their antlers on it is another concern.  Using snow fence, commercial products and inexpensive and scent-rejected soap samples are all usable deterrents.  More extreme measures may include rotting eggs and human hair.  A further challenge for successful transplanting of trees is timing.  The saplings need to be moved after the frost is out of the ground but before their buds break.  Only after 20 to 40 years will the maples be ready to tap.  People ask why Hurry Hill Farm is willing to make such an effort when tap time is so far off.  In reply, they are reminded that syrup makers in general never get to tap a tree that they have planted.

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