From Maple Trees to Maple Gelato
Drew McNaughton leads a group of Montpelier Middle School students through the woods by Hubbard Park to collect sap from buckets.
Drew has a big picture view of what collecting sap outdoors means for his students. He has been teaching at Montpelier Middle School for more than 20 years, and the sustainability after school program is something extra he does.
Drew explains that the sustainability program gives kids hands-on experiences that help them think about concepts like survival, the world around them, and what we get from nature.
The program also connects to the community also. Drew’s students have worked on projects to provide food for community members and learned about ways people can get support if they need help getting enough to eat.
The tapping equipment is supplied by Kate Whelley McCabe, the owner of Montpelier-based Vermont Evaporator. Kate invented a home evaporator that fills a gap between a stovetop evaporator and a commercial-sized evaporator. She has been manufacturing the home evaporators in Montpelier for the last 10 years.
Vermont Evaporator strongly values giving back, and has pledged portions of its revenue to Native American organizations for the past seven years.
“The original inhabitants of North America discovered how to make maple sugar and passed on that knowledge to European immigrants,” Kate told us. “All of us who work in the maple industry benefit from this knowledge transfer on a daily basis, on land where they discovered maple thousands of years ago.”
The tapping equipment is supplied by Kate Whelley McCabe, the owner of Montpelier-based Vermont Evaporator.
Drew’s students were rewarded for their hard work with a trip to Enna, where Shannon Bates made them maple gelato.
Shannon explained the science that makes gelato churn into such a creamy consistency, the way the fat and air are different in the recipe. She creates a wide variety of flavors that are traditional to gelato’s Italian origins as well as flavors from everywhere in the world, including maple from Vermont.
Shannon’s business shares many of the principals both Drew and Kate described. Shannon uses fresh ingredients that celebrate what we find in nature, and also links her work with food to ways of supporting the community around her.
She also values learning and kindness, two values that come together pretty well for Shannon’s gelato business. I’ve witnessed quick lessons in math, friendship, flavors, and being brave at her counter.