The Significance of Sugaring to Fairfield, Vermont
Fairfield's community has been brought together by maple sugaring. It makes a big difference to Fairfield. Families could fall apart if we didn't have sugaring to bring us together. It pays for the clothes we wear and the food we eat. People from this rural town are like a giant family because of sugaring. It means a lot to us. "We try to have pizza in the sugar house on Friday nights and we ask the young ones if they would rather spend Easter there or at my house. They all say they want to go to the sugar house. It's just impossible to get them to stay out of it," Sue Howrigan. Ya, kids are attached to it. Not only kids, adults too!
Can you imagine not having maple trees to get syrup from? Well, you probably can because you might have the fake syrup instead of the real stuff. You're missing out on a lot. "I don't want to see sugaring turn into a factory. I want family traditions to stay happening," Bet Howrigan. She's right. We don't want sugaring to turn into a factory because we won't be able to go out into the wet woods and have a great time with our family and friends. We will be telling old stories instead of making new ones. If sugaring stopped then Fairfield could be torn apart and we wouldn't be as close. Families and friends should be visiting and helping out stacking wood, tapping trees, gathering sap and boiling sap. They should be getting to know each other.
Farmers and a lot of other people get a lot of their money from sugaring. They depend on sugaring. Farmers only make little profit from farming alone so most farmers sugar too. It gives them some extra money. Did you know that maple syrup is worth a lot of money but if everybody starts to sugar then the prices will go down and farmers will not get as much money to pay for their essentials. Some families depend on just sugaring and if people just keep joining then the prices will go down. It will hurt many families. People ask, "What will happen to sugaring in 20 years?" No one knows. But a lot of people think that many people will start the sugaring business to get money and the prices will start to fall. Also, some people think that the sugaring business will turn into a factory and family traditions will start to disappear.
Now do you want some pancakes or waffles with real maple syrup? Do you realize how important sugaring is in Fairfield? It does a lot to our community and makes a big impact on it. Not only does sugaring bring money in, it makes families come together. It is just a part of our community that we need. Other communities have different things to bring them together, but we have sugaring. We wouldn't be Fairfield without it. We need sugaring. Fairfield may be small but the land is huge and the families are tight!