Ag in the Classroom Comes Alive In Roxbury

By Liz Page

ROXBURY – A virtual tour with his fourth grade classmates during Covid, sparked a young boy's interest in maple syrup production that stirred his dad into bringing back some of his youth experiences as well. KBub Maple Syrup is a small family operation high in the hills of Roxbury.

And the fourth grade class at Roxbury Central School remains part of this small operation.

A J Vamosy was boiling syrup last week in the shed (sap house or sugarhouse) he and friends built around a small evaporator in the Vamosy family's backyard.

"My son, Kaleb, did a virtual tour of a sugarhouse in Vermont with his fourth-grade class, during Covid. He came home from school with a spile the teacher had handed out to each student in the class and I said, ‘why don't we hook it on a tree.’"

They did just that, but after a few days of buckets that kept falling off the hook, Vamosy made a trip to Shaver Hill Maple in Harpersfield where he got real sap buckets and some tubing. They added some taps and boiled the sap they gathered in a large cooking pot on the front porch. "We spent a fortune on propane to make that first batch of syrup," Vamosy recalls.

It was a good family project. So Vamosy's friend, Tim Powell, researched the feasibility of syrup production from the back yard. To be cost effective they mismatched some stuff together and it worked. Now they have built a sap house around the 2 x 4 evaporator they started with and have since added on to the small sap house. "We boiled for one year in the small 12 x 14 foot sap house and then added another six feet." It is now 12 x 20 and as Vamosy puts it, they make "a decent amount of syrup."

They now have about 300 taps out and use a combination of buckets and pipeline.

Each night that he boils, Vamosy finds a different one of his four sons to help him. "I get a different kid each day, working around sports and homework. They all come out the sap house for the free samples."

He also gets help from Powell, who enjoys seeing the results of the little operation he helped develop. He boils when Vamosy is busy collecting sap, during the bigger runs. He is also a good source of knowledge for the fourth graders, along with running the evaporator and showing them how it works while Vamosy shows them the finishing and bottling process.

This is the third year the RCS fourth graders have entered their syrup in a taste competition. They took first place in the first year, second last year and this year they are hoping for another first place finish. A number of schools enter the competition, according to Vamosy. The competition is based on quality and requires using all of the fundamentals that go into producing maple syrup. Judging includes density, clarity and taste. They receive 20 bonus points if they can show how the product was made and post a video about it.

They continue to do maple syrup production as a part of their Ag in the Classroom project for the fourth grade. The kids learn all about making syrup, tapping trees, testing for sugar content and other aspects of the process. "I go out and talk about it at school and they spend a day at the sugarhouse, learning how the sugarhouse works. They all get a sample to take home.

"If we can get one kid interested in making maple syrup, it's worth it," said Vamosy.

His great uncle and grandfather produced maple syrup on their farms in Harpersfield and he helped them as a kid. As a teenager, he helped the Powell family at their Greenbriar Farm maple syrup production. "It's a part of me too," said Vamosy.

The name KBub comes from Kaleb's nickname. You can sometimes find him at a booth with his dad, selling their prize-winning KBub Maple Syrup or helping out with its production in the backyard.

Fourth graders

Tim Powell (in the doorway) and AJ Vamosy (to his right) posed with the fourth grade class at Roxbury Central School that inspired them to build the backyard maple syrup operation known as KBub Maple three years ago. It continues to be a part of their Ag in the Classroom curricula.

Kaleb Vamosy (aka KBub) inspired the idea of making maple syrup. He pumps sap from the gathering tank on his dad's truck to the holding tank at the sap house where his family produces KBub Syrup.

Donny VanEtten and Tim Powell help out at KBub Maple. VanEtten (left) was canning syrup, while Powell (seated) was boiling it. He was the guy who created the backyard system that is working so well.