March 21, 2013 PDF Edition - The Sentinel

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PAGE 10 THE SENTINEL • THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2013 Richard McIntire drills a hole in one of the maple trees at Cold Spring School. Kindergarteners gather around as Richard McIntire taps a tree. Turley Publications photos by Aimee M. Henderson SAP | from Page 1 in Amherst, talked with each kindergarten classroom about the process of turning maple sap into the sweet maple syrup that they enjoy on waffles and pancakes. Just like the 15 years or so prior, McIntire met with each classroom in the hallway outside kindergartener teach Louise Butler’s classroom. Butler began the program all those years ago, and had the first class make a bulletin board depicting the maple sugaring process. Butler, each year, hangs up the same bulletin board. The maple trees on it are tracings of the original students’ arms and hands – those students are now college aged. As each classroom filtered through, McIntire explained the entire process as well as took questions from the students. He told them, “I like maple syrup and I like to talk about making maple syrup, and it’s important to know where our food comes from.” McIntire brought along with him the tools needed to tap a maple tree, as well as the buckets to catch the sap. He also showed students the tubing that is used when maple trees are grouped together along a hillside. McIntire explained how each night he has to go gather the sap from all the buckets, but the tubing makes it much easier. He said gravity helps the sap to move down the tube and empty into a bigger tub. McIntire also showed the students the different grades of syrup. He had a small rack of samples, all different color shades ranging from dark to light. “The light syrup is a more delicate taste and the dark color has a robust maple taste,” he explained. McIntire said his family prefers the much darker syrup, and his seven-year-old granddaughter was his biggest critic so far this year. “My granddaughter said my syrup was terrible this year because her mother took some of the first syrup of the year,” he said, adding that the syrup is much lighter in the earlier part of the season. “As the season goes on, it gets darker.” McIntire said 80 percent of people tend to prefer the darker syrup. However, the lighter colored syrup is perfect for making maple candies out of. “To me, all the syrup is good. Sometimes people can’t even tell the difference in the grade,” he said. McIntire started his season about one and a half weeks prior to visiting Cold Spring School and said it was off to a good start. He said last year the season only lasted for about one and half weeks for him, because the weather started to become too warm for the sap to run. The best conditions for sap to run is for cold nights and warm days. McIntire said ideal conditions would be temperatures between 25 to 28 degrees at night and between 40 to 45 degrees during the day. Once those conditions change the tree begins to bud and shuts down producing the sap. During the first week for McIntire this year he was able to make 41 gallons of syrup. “It’s going very well so far. We are off to a really good season and we’ve been really busy,” he said. McIntire has already topped last year’s number of just 35 gallons. A typical season for him usually nets about 60 to 75 gallons of syrup. He said part of the increase in production this year is because his son is helping out a lot more. This year McIntire has 485 taps out on trees. McIntire explained to the students that it takes a long time and a lot of sap to make just a coffee cup size full of syrup. He said for every 40 cups of sap collected from a A kindergartener takes one last look at the maple sap dripping into a pail. tree, 39 of them need to boil away, leaving only one cup of maple syrup. The first step in the process is to drill a two-inch hole in the side of a maple tree, add a spout and hang a bucket or tubing. The sap, with ideal conditions, will drip into the bucket and fill it up. From there it is collected and brought to the sugar shack, where the boiling process takes place. To students got to see first-hand the process of tapping a tree on the same day. After listening to McIntire explain the process, they followed him out to their schoolyard where he drilled into a tree. As soon as he tapped the spout into the hole the sap began to flow out. One by one the students stuck their heads under the spout and caught fresh drops of sap on their tongues. There are approximately 300 maple produces across the Commonwealth. In an average year, Massachusetts’ sugar shacks produce about 50,000 gallons of maple syrup worth almost $3 million. The 2012 season was short, but sweet. With weather only cooperating for a brief time, maple producers were still able to make lots of 100 percent pure maple syrup and candies. McIntire said Canada, Main, New Hampshire and Vermont as still ahead of Massachusetts in production, however Connecticut is producing less and less. McIntire believes it is due to the warming trend of the seasons. For more information on maple sugaring, including recipes, visit the MMPA website at www.massmaple.org. Lucia hangs a pail from the spicket of the maple tree. Students look into a pail catching maple sap in their schoolyard. Richard McIntire shows a student how the maple sap flows from the tree.
THE SENTINEL • THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2013 PAGE 11 ART POETRY | from Page 1 with Poetry” throughout the month. The new program is the brain child of Fontaine-Pincince, who for 25 years ran a private school and large daycare facility in Ware. In 2005 she sold her business to pursue her dream of working in the arts. She graduated from Lesley University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program with a concentration in poetry and started combining poetry with visual arts. “In a way it’s my second career, but really I feel like it’s just an extenion of my first. I have my hands in education, which is what I love,” said Fontaine-Pincince. Since 2008 Fontaine-Pincince has held solo exhibits in a number of galleries in the area, but was more recently approached to create a program for school-aged youths. Last year a fourth grade teacher asked Fontaine-Pincince if she could create a program appropriate for that age group. Through a Massachusetts Cultural Grant she was able to launch the new “Art from Poetry” program, which combines just that – visual art with English language arts. “Visual poetry is a natural comination. I love both, so this is like heaven on Earth,” said Fontaine-Pincince. Fontaine-Pincince’s own works of art have been on display in the cases outside the art room since the beginning of the month. Last week she visited the classroom and began instructing the students on how Carolyn Youngren, a senior English student, talks with Denise Fontaine- Pincince about her artwork, a tree made of copper wire. to create their own visual art with poetry. The students were first tasked with writing a poem that began with with phrase “I remember.” From there, they were to select a word, phrase or verse that meant the most. The artwork they would create would be a reflection of those words. “I listened to 106 poems and they were all unique and beautiful,” said. Fontaine- Pincince. “Visual poetry is a natural comination. I love both, so this is like heaven on Earth.” – DENISE FONTAINE-PINCINCE Nick Bertsch, a senior honor studio art student, said experimenting with the visual concept was new to him, but very interesting. “This is a great opportunity to work with mixed media in art,” he said. “This is really new to us, especially with all the material we can use. It’s a good opportunity to express ourselves.” The materials Bertsch was refering to was bins full of unique items like buttons, shells, puzzle pieces, bottle tops, bones, twine, feathers, cloth, scraps of aluminum, broken china, twigs, bark, bamboo, canvas, lace, and so much more. The students were also allowed to work with paint, wood burners and carpentry tools. Bertsch’s poem was inspired by his grandmother and the phrase he chose to focus on for his visual art was “I remember butterscotch candy.” Bertsch will pursue the arts after graduation. Art teacher Elizabeth Teixeira said Fontaine-Pincince contacted her about the program and after some discussion decided it was a good fit to the art program. She also ivited English teacher Lori Vaz to include her students because of the poetry aspect. “Some of the art students have worked with mixed media, but not many, so this is a good learning experience for them. The poetry part was difficult for some of the art students. I could see that they just wanted to get their hands on the material and create,” said Teixeira. “The poem was the framework for the art – which is what got their juices flowing.” Teixeira said the program really “opened doors” for the English students. Funded by Belchertown High School, the National Arts Honor Society, and the Belchertown Cultural Council, the projects will be on exhibit at the school and at the Clapp Memorial library, and in May at Hope & Feathers Gallery in Amherst. Turley Publications photos by Aimee M. Henderson Students look over all the different supplies they can use to create a unique piece of art. Shannen Curtin, left, explains her art choices to classmate Lily Wallace. We’ve Got Your Number Find the mortgage that feels right at home. We offer competitive rates on fixed rate mortgage loans so you can purchase or refinance a home within your budget. Plus, with bi-weekly mortgage payments you can now pay your loan off sooner, reduce the interest paid over the life of your loan and build equity in your home quicker.** Call us today to get started! .875 %*2APR 2FIXED RATE 15-YEAR TERM .911 %* 15-YEAR TERM NorthBrookfieldSavingsBank.com 866-711-6272 Where It’s At Since 1854 *Interest rates and annual percentage rates (APRs) effective 2/15/13 but are subject to change without notice and may also change based on factors such as credit, loan-to-value ratios, property type, loan amount, and occupancy. APRs are based on 2 down payment and 1, nanced, 1- amily wner-ccupied homes. 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Page 9: Vernon Lodge hosting community brea
Page 15 and 16: Classroom calendar Thursday, March
Page 19 and 20: GRANBY LEGION DONATES TO SOLDIERS T
Page 21 and 22: By Tim Peterson Turley Publications
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