When we asked Don Gilbert about his journey to maple, it began with a familiar story in these parts – a college experience at the University of Vermont. As a senior in the mechanical engineering department in the 1970’s, Don was required to pick a special senior project from a list of offerings around campus. He landed at the Proctor Maple Research Center, with a professor focused on increasing the efficiency of evaporators. As Don explained, it was the height of the energy crisis, so not only was the work a perfect fit for his interests, the project to experiment with preheaters was pretty novel at the time. The work also meant he got to cross paths with David Marvin, and David’s project on woodchipper conveyors.
While I marveled at just how small a world maple really is, Don added, “applying engineering theory at the PMRC was great! I think there is more engineering going on in maple than in most other jobs”. Don eventually finished his project with PMRC and moved on to a successful career in utility management. But he never forgot his love of maple, once teasing his son many years later, that if “he didn’t like maple by the time he was 18, he’d have to leave the state”.
Maple once again became Don’s favorite engineering project in 2012. With a newly purchased property in Hinesburg to build on, and warm memories of sugaring, a good friend sealed the deal for what was next when he said, “you can sugar in your woods”. Sherman Hollow Organic Farm was born! Always up for a project, Don’s first evaporator was a used Leader 2x6 that he boiled on for 10 years. During that decade he purchased an RO and made many updates to his sugarhouse. Don says he felt good about the syrup he was making, but like any engineer worth his salt, was always looking for efficiencies.
