Old-Time Sugaring Demonstration
Was Big Hit at Gaysville Church
By Shari McLaughlin

Mother Nature helped the Gaysville Community Church put on a great show Sunday, March 30 by delivering a spectacular spring day for the Zimmer family’s 1800s maple sugaring demonstration. A bright, crisp day just made for boiling sap into maple syrup, brought community members of all ages out for sunshine and fellowship.

Jim and Cathy Zimmer and their kids Elijah, Hannah and Caleb, entertained and educated visitors by recreating an old fashioned family sugaring camp complete with period costumes, hand-built shelter and wooden tripod hanging a cast iron pot filled with bubbling sap over a wood fire.

Jim, a trustee of the church, is retired from the National Park Service, where he did log and stone work restoring historic buildings. His interest in history was inspired at an early age by his great-grandfather, a "pack rat" with an attic and cellar filled with a collection of historical items and tools that proved irresistible to a young boy, including Civil War items saved by Jim’s great-great grandmother. His great-grandfather’s collection seeded Jim’s own collection of antique tools, but now includes a focus on pre-Civil War items.

The Zimmer family uses the same antique sugaring tools at home as they use for their historical re-creations, except that they use a gas stove at home. Youngest son, Caleb, whittles the taps for the trees from staghorn sumac branches and his mother turns hot syrup into a finely granulated sugar and hard sugar cakes. Oldest son Elijah displayed some of his folk art, including framed and unframed prints and note cards for sale, with all proceeds going to the church’s steeple restoration project.

According to Jim Zimmer, who has been working with the Preservation Trust of Vermont on the project, if the weather is good, the steeple and belfry will be removed by crane the week of April 7 to begin restoration.

Church members put on a bountiful buffet of old fashioned foods for visitors, featuring five different soups, baked beans and rolls, homemade donuts and five different pies, including a vinegar pie.

Longtime Stockbridge resident Helen Chap commented, "Vinegar pie was probably meant to be similar to lemon pie, but before there were lemons from California, you just used what was on hand. That’s probably how the recipe developed."

Of course, there was also sugar on snow and pickles, and sisters Jen and Sandra Wall provided musical entertainment on guitar and fiddle.

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