WEBVTT - Maple Syrup Brothers

0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:06.120
<v Speaker 1>On the Job is brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.

0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:11.080
<v Speaker 1>Express Employment Professionals is a leading staffing provider that employs

0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:15.040
<v Speaker 1>nearly six hundred thousand people annually across more than eight

0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:19.880
<v Speaker 1>hundred franchise locations in the US, Canada, and South Africa.

0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:22.920
<v Speaker 1>Our long term goal is at the heart of our

0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.480
<v Speaker 1>company's mission to help as many people as possible find

0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.960
<v Speaker 1>good jobs. By helping as many clients as possible find

0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:33.360
<v Speaker 1>good people. It takes more than just online searches to

0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.000
<v Speaker 1>land a job. It takes real people who will identify

0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:42.280
<v Speaker 1>your talents, a person invested in your success. Express Employment

0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.599
<v Speaker 1>Professionals understands what it takes to land a new position

0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.320
<v Speaker 1>at a top employer or start a new career in

0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:53.080
<v Speaker 1>today's job market. Express Nose Jobs, get to No Express,

0:00:53.120 --> 0:01:04.360
<v Speaker 1>Go to Express pros dot com. Welcome to on the Job.

0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.959
<v Speaker 1>This season, we're bringing you stories about people finding their

0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.840
<v Speaker 1>professional stride by virtue of who they know, whether it's

0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.800
<v Speaker 1>breathing new life into an age old profession, taking the

0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.000
<v Speaker 1>reins and a family business, forging your own path with

0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:21.080
<v Speaker 1>a new idea, or landing the perfect job doing something

0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:26.640
<v Speaker 1>you'd never before even considered. Today reporter Otis Gray ventures

0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:30.040
<v Speaker 1>out into the deep woods of rural Vermont to meet

0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:34.120
<v Speaker 1>the Stewart family. Vermont is a state historically known for

0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:37.720
<v Speaker 1>its agrarian businesses, but a lot of these jobs have

0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:41.520
<v Speaker 1>faded away over the last few decades. In this iconic

0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:45.560
<v Speaker 1>New England landscape, the Stewarts run a high stakes operation

0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.360
<v Speaker 1>that is totally dependent on each other, the community, and

0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:54.120
<v Speaker 1>the environment they live in. Here's Otis. So for the

0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.920
<v Speaker 1>Stewart family, today is a big day. Yeah, today is

0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.720
<v Speaker 1>game day, if not the super Bowl. So we're doing

0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.240
<v Speaker 1>the thing. That's twenty three year old Tanner Stewart and

0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:06.080
<v Speaker 1>he says super Bowl because running the Stewart's business is

0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.880
<v Speaker 1>like running a football team if the off season were

0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.520
<v Speaker 1>ten to eleven months long. His brother Elliott and his

0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.720
<v Speaker 1>dad Mark agree, Yeah, Yeah, it's that's exactly what it is.

0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:17.520
<v Speaker 1>It's like the playoffs every day and if you if

0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:19.760
<v Speaker 1>you lose the Super Bowl, that sucks. You've got to

0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:22.120
<v Speaker 1>think about it for a year. And that's basically what happens.

0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:24.799
<v Speaker 1>It's a lot to uh to take on, but at

0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:29.960
<v Speaker 1>the same time, there's a lot of good rewards. The

0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:32.240
<v Speaker 1>reason the stakes are so high is because the family

0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.240
<v Speaker 1>is in the third year of running Stewart Maple. Maple

0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:37.880
<v Speaker 1>syrup is a huge commodity in the Green Mountain State

0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:39.960
<v Speaker 1>and is a big part of its identity, kind of

0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.400
<v Speaker 1>like how wine is to Italy. But the window for

0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.799
<v Speaker 1>harvesting maple syrup usually lasts only three to five weeks.

0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.480
<v Speaker 1>So unlike most businesses, where if you have a bad month,

0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:50.280
<v Speaker 1>you just try to do better the next one, the

0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.320
<v Speaker 1>Stewarts have to make enough money in just one month

0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.480
<v Speaker 1>to support them and their business. And no matter how

0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:58.720
<v Speaker 1>much they prep in the off season, a lot of

0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:03.320
<v Speaker 1>their success is totally dependent on the weather. Yeah, yeah, exactly,

0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:05.720
<v Speaker 1>And that's I guess that's the uniqueness of it all,

0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.680
<v Speaker 1>is that we really are are on a small window

0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:13.560
<v Speaker 1>from that winter to summer range where we gotta make everything.

0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.680
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna be following Elliott today, but it's important to

0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:18.840
<v Speaker 1>note that the whole family has gone all in on

0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:22.639
<v Speaker 1>Stewart Maple um taras Stewart again, Elliot's brother. My name

0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.760
<v Speaker 1>is Elissa Turgeon. I'm Elliott Stewart's fiance. I'm Mark Stewart,

0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:30.520
<v Speaker 1>Elliot's dad, all right, Paul Stewart his uncle. I'm Gina

0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.359
<v Speaker 1>and of course his mom, Gina Stewart, who Elliott says,

0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.000
<v Speaker 1>the unsung hero of the business. Oh that's really nice.

0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.720
<v Speaker 1>I make cookies. That's the most important part. She's being modest.

0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.360
<v Speaker 1>She runs the finances of the business and a million

0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.520
<v Speaker 1>other things, while the rest play pivotal roles as well,

0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.440
<v Speaker 1>from sales to social media to the actual boiling of

0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.840
<v Speaker 1>the syrup. Yeah, every single person in our family plays

0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.720
<v Speaker 1>a huge role in the business. And uh, there's not

0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:00.600
<v Speaker 1>really one person that could be replaced. Having grown up

0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:03.520
<v Speaker 1>in Vermont myself, I know that every winter is completely

0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:06.000
<v Speaker 1>different and you never know what it will bring. But

0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.720
<v Speaker 1>for the Stewarts, that unknown is directly tied to their livelihood,

0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.640
<v Speaker 1>and every year around March it always comes down to

0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:25.240
<v Speaker 1>one question, will the sap run. It's a beautiful sunny

0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.320
<v Speaker 1>March day, snow on the ground, and Elliott Stewart is

0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:30.320
<v Speaker 1>trying to start our snowmobile so we can go out

0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:36.880
<v Speaker 1>into the woods that doesn't run. To make syrup, you

0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.080
<v Speaker 1>first drill a hole into a maple tree and you

0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:41.640
<v Speaker 1>tap a little pipe into it. When it gets about

0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.440
<v Speaker 1>freezing the tree, sap drips out of the tap, looking

0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:46.960
<v Speaker 1>kind of like water, you collect it and then you

0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.880
<v Speaker 1>boil it down to make it more pure and syrupy.

0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.640
<v Speaker 1>But it takes a lot to make a little. About

0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.680
<v Speaker 1>forty gallons of sap will make one gallon of syrup.

0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.320
<v Speaker 1>So the Stewards have to tap a lot of trees

0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.359
<v Speaker 1>to make a profit. And this year they've tapped twenty

0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.160
<v Speaker 1>thousand trees. And one of Elliott's jobs is to go

0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:06.360
<v Speaker 1>around the woods and make sure that all of those

0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:12.920
<v Speaker 1>taps are working just the way that they should. Right,

0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:21.320
<v Speaker 1>we're up, so I'm on the back as Elliott takes

0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.120
<v Speaker 1>me through the winding trails of the Stewart's sugar Bush,

0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.960
<v Speaker 1>suggar Bush being acres of land and maple trees that

0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.919
<v Speaker 1>the family has tapped to collect pure maple sap. The

0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.400
<v Speaker 1>lines go eight thousand feet in each direction from the

0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:37.920
<v Speaker 1>sugar house. It's about a little over six hundred acres

0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.000
<v Speaker 1>of of lines that flow to the sugar house, so

0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.680
<v Speaker 1>it's it's quite a bit of ground to cover. The

0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.640
<v Speaker 1>land itself is shaped like a bowl, a little valley

0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.560
<v Speaker 1>surrounded by mountains covered in maple trees. Light blue tubes

0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.520
<v Speaker 1>that collect sap run like phone lines through the woods

0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.920
<v Speaker 1>and along the trail. It's tough to ring. And we're

0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.880
<v Speaker 1>riding along a trail that looks down at an alarming

0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.599
<v Speaker 1>steep ravine on the left hand side the main lines

0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.200
<v Speaker 1>on our left here there are two inch pipes and

0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:07.720
<v Speaker 1>it's uh, it's a long ways down to the river

0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.320
<v Speaker 1>down below. So you're climbing down in this ridge. It's

0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.680
<v Speaker 1>like well like sixty degrees trying to get the taps in. Yeah,

0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.640
<v Speaker 1>it's it's steep. It's definitely. There's some spots where you're

0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:18.640
<v Speaker 1>just like you're hanging on you know, you gotta climb

0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:20.960
<v Speaker 1>with your hands and some spots and those are those

0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:22.919
<v Speaker 1>are always fun days. Nobody wants to go to that

0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:24.960
<v Speaker 1>section of the woods. You break your ankle, you're on

0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:30.040
<v Speaker 1>your own on a snowmobile, riding through some of New

0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.679
<v Speaker 1>England's iconically beautiful woods. You might get kind of jealous

0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.719
<v Speaker 1>that this is Elliott's day to day job. Yeah, it's definitely.

0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.120
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I'm not mad about it. It's definitely. It's

0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:41.559
<v Speaker 1>not it's not too bad of a thing. Fair weather.

0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.800
<v Speaker 1>It's all good. It's the nasty days that that are hard.

0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.680
<v Speaker 1>It is an all sweet, delicious syrup and Robert Frosty

0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:53.400
<v Speaker 1>and landscapes. The business end of Stewart maple Aside. Their

0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.800
<v Speaker 1>success is highly dependent on mother nature, so there are

0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.760
<v Speaker 1>a lot of variables and the stakes are high. Most

0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.200
<v Speaker 1>of their days are taken up just maintaining the lines

0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:06.400
<v Speaker 1>between fallen trees and leaks or bad taps and animals

0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.880
<v Speaker 1>biting the lines, anything could interfere with the SAP running.

0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.960
<v Speaker 1>If you don't take things day to day, it's very overwhelming,

0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.760
<v Speaker 1>you know, when you think about the woods as a whole.

0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:20.040
<v Speaker 1>Um we have acres of land with trees down everywhere.

0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:22.120
<v Speaker 1>And if you're like, if you wake up in the

0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:23.960
<v Speaker 1>morning and you think you're gonna get it done that day,

0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:26.560
<v Speaker 1>like you're gonna drive yourself crazy. You gotta take a

0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:28.880
<v Speaker 1>day to day and do one step at a time,

0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.560
<v Speaker 1>and as long as you're working hard and getting something

0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:38.680
<v Speaker 1>done every day, it's one step in the right direction. Anyway,

0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:49.000
<v Speaker 1>just being out here in the woods all the time,

0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:51.840
<v Speaker 1>you're out in the fresh air and you can think

0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.280
<v Speaker 1>so clearly and um so that honestly, it kind of

0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.120
<v Speaker 1>helps me to be able to process things where you

0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:00.360
<v Speaker 1>have like five million different things going on, but you

0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.240
<v Speaker 1>can you can easily kind of just go through everything

0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:05.800
<v Speaker 1>in your head because just there's no distractions. You're out

0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:10.680
<v Speaker 1>here in the woods, there's no noise, it's just cold,

0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.560
<v Speaker 1>and you're just you're just out there hiking. By the

0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.080
<v Speaker 1>time you get tired or you're cold, you go back

0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:17.680
<v Speaker 1>in and you do it all again the next day,

0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:19.880
<v Speaker 1>and there's no there's no weekends. You just do it

0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.640
<v Speaker 1>any day the weather is good. It's relaxing in a sense.

0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:35.400
<v Speaker 1>So that's what you don't want. So that's a that's

0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.960
<v Speaker 1>a big league so that what that does. You can

0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.520
<v Speaker 1>see in the line. Each one of these blue lines

0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.240
<v Speaker 1>connects to many trees. They all run down to the

0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.440
<v Speaker 1>sugar house below where we started our ride. The lines

0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.520
<v Speaker 1>are airtight and pull the SAP through a vacuum system

0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.520
<v Speaker 1>through the woods. But if there's a leak like this one,

0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.120
<v Speaker 1>there's no vacuum pressure and any trees behind that leak

0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.320
<v Speaker 1>will be stopped from running as well. Again, this is

0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.400
<v Speaker 1>one of twin eight thousand taps that they have to

0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.199
<v Speaker 1>keep an eye on. This one's a pretty steep one

0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:09.480
<v Speaker 1>right here, riding down one of the trails, and we

0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.160
<v Speaker 1>have to duck under a big treat that felt right

0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.000
<v Speaker 1>down over one of the main lines a pretty common

0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.400
<v Speaker 1>nuisance that becomes a serious problem with big storms like

0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:22.040
<v Speaker 1>this past fall November December time. There we had that

0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:27.559
<v Speaker 1>crazy heavy wet snow that blanketed the trees, snap branches,

0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.600
<v Speaker 1>and uh so we just had we had quite a

0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:32.960
<v Speaker 1>mess on our hands. Um it looked like a bomb

0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.760
<v Speaker 1>went off in the woods. Like, oh man, we had

0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:37.760
<v Speaker 1>all these lines all cleaned up ready to go, and

0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.000
<v Speaker 1>then uh oh, we gotta go back through more chain,

0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.440
<v Speaker 1>said work for a couple of weeks. Elliott's twenty five now.

0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:48.000
<v Speaker 1>He spent a year at college before deciding he wanted

0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:50.200
<v Speaker 1>to come back home and go full time into sugaring.

0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.520
<v Speaker 1>He eventually convinced his brother Tanner, who's now twenty three,

0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.280
<v Speaker 1>to do the same. And this is unique here. A

0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.120
<v Speaker 1>lot of young people are leaving Vermont to go find

0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:02.600
<v Speaker 1>work in bigger cities and lesser sticking around to carry

0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.560
<v Speaker 1>on the agrarian businesses that have long been a big

0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.120
<v Speaker 1>part of the culture. Yeah. We we definitely are on

0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.000
<v Speaker 1>an island. It's definitely. Uh, there's just not a lot

0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:15.200
<v Speaker 1>of people doing like going out on the limb and

0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.559
<v Speaker 1>and just hoping that it works. And uh, you know,

0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.560
<v Speaker 1>we're fortunately our parents have supported us with it. My

0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:23.520
<v Speaker 1>dad's done a similar thing where he was a carpenter

0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.880
<v Speaker 1>all his life and uh, and he took went out

0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:29.640
<v Speaker 1>on the limb with us, um and did the sugaring

0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.880
<v Speaker 1>full time. UM. So we've we've we've basically got to

0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:34.720
<v Speaker 1>the point where we're like, Okay, well, if we're gonna

0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:37.400
<v Speaker 1>do this, we have to leap. And I think that's

0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.000
<v Speaker 1>actually what's made us pretty successful at it is that

0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.040
<v Speaker 1>we are one percent committed. So like when we go

0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:44.400
<v Speaker 1>home at the end of the day, we talked about

0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:47.840
<v Speaker 1>maple syrup. We wake up in the morning where everything

0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.040
<v Speaker 1>is maple all the time, and so we have there's

0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.080
<v Speaker 1>about seventy acres of trees over there, and have town

0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.720
<v Speaker 1>and so that at times can can be a negative

0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:00.560
<v Speaker 1>because we struggle to shut off from it. So there's

0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.920
<v Speaker 1>a lot of times where it's just like, wow, we've

0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.760
<v Speaker 1>talked nothing about life at all outside of maple syrup.

0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:11.680
<v Speaker 1>In the off season, the Steward spend the entire year

0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.560
<v Speaker 1>prepping for this month, removing old lines, making new trails,

0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.960
<v Speaker 1>repairing damage ones, drilling new trees, finding vendors to buy

0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.400
<v Speaker 1>the syrup. Once they have it. It's a monumental amount

0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.720
<v Speaker 1>of work that all leads up to right now. You know,

0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.559
<v Speaker 1>you work for nine months, ten months, you don't ever

0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:32.720
<v Speaker 1>make a penny. You get to a point where you

0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.280
<v Speaker 1>can start to question what you're doing. You're like, wow,

0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:38.240
<v Speaker 1>I haven't made a single dollar and in a long time.

0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:41.480
<v Speaker 1>You have to really have a good mindset with it

0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:43.640
<v Speaker 1>and have to trust that you know what you're doing,

0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:45.760
<v Speaker 1>because if you start to question it, then it's like,

0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:54.480
<v Speaker 1>oh boy, we got we got issues. We'll get back

0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.440
<v Speaker 1>to the story in a second. First, a word from

0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:03.200
<v Speaker 1>Express Employment Professionals. A strong work ethic takes pride in

0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.520
<v Speaker 1>a job well done. This is you. But to get

0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.800
<v Speaker 1>an honest day's work, you need a call back. You

0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:15.480
<v Speaker 1>need a job. Express Employment Professionals can help. We'll connect

0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.880
<v Speaker 1>you to the right company. We're committed to your success

0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.160
<v Speaker 1>and never charge a fee to find you a job.

0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.640
<v Speaker 1>Express Nose Jobs get to no Express find your location

0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.240
<v Speaker 1>at express pros dot com or on the Express Jobs app.

0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:36.240
<v Speaker 1>And now back to our story. We'll back down in

0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.800
<v Speaker 1>the sugar house. You can see pretty quick that after

0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:42.079
<v Speaker 1>putting in all of that work, the payoff can be

0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:50.200
<v Speaker 1>pretty sweet. That is the sound of sap flowing a

0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:52.560
<v Speaker 1>lot of it down at the sugar house. All the

0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.680
<v Speaker 1>lines from the woods feed into this big cement box

0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.319
<v Speaker 1>the size of a small basement, lined with a food

0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.840
<v Speaker 1>safe plastic. Really good site for you. Yeah, oh yeah,

0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.000
<v Speaker 1>this is exciting. This is the excitement that we wait

0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.840
<v Speaker 1>for for throughout the year. This is what we work for.

0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.400
<v Speaker 1>And uh, it's rewarding to see it happened like this.

0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.760
<v Speaker 1>That is a swimming pool filled with a what's sap?

0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.719
<v Speaker 1>I think will probably be uh close to um eight

0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:21.160
<v Speaker 1>tho gallons of sap over the last like forty eight hours,

0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:26.040
<v Speaker 1>which is a lot. This basement size holding tank where

0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.400
<v Speaker 1>the sap runs into it fills fast. And now this

0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.400
<v Speaker 1>is when Elliott's dad Mark lets the sap flow into

0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:36.320
<v Speaker 1>a giant boiler that looks like a stainless steel train car.

0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:39.400
<v Speaker 1>And this right here is how they make their finished product.

0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.080
<v Speaker 1>They boil out most of the water, turning the sap

0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.839
<v Speaker 1>from two percent sugar into sixty six sugar. So how

0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.439
<v Speaker 1>many gowns are you gonna be making it? Anything? Probably

0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.720
<v Speaker 1>around five gallons somewhere in there, five to six hundred

0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:56.080
<v Speaker 1>gallons of syrup finished product, finished product, Yet lots of syrup.

0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.480
<v Speaker 1>In a short amount of time. With the day being

0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:00.480
<v Speaker 1>game day, I asked the rest of the family how

0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:04.640
<v Speaker 1>they were feeling today. Is awesome. It's wonderful to see

0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.240
<v Speaker 1>the sun come out and the SAP finally run and

0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:09.800
<v Speaker 1>it's a good thing. And how's the Super Bowl going today?

0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.200
<v Speaker 1>Not bad? I think we're we're up at halftime. We're

0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:15.600
<v Speaker 1>doing well right now, so not mad about it, that's

0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:17.920
<v Speaker 1>for sure. The game is strong today. We've got a

0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:23.120
<v Speaker 1>great chance of taking this one home. Also, the steam

0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.120
<v Speaker 1>of the maple syrup smells pretty good, so you're kind

0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.440
<v Speaker 1>of in like a little like maple syrup high when

0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:36.160
<v Speaker 1>you're in there, so the maple bubble exactly. So it's

0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.080
<v Speaker 1>a good day for the Stewart family. And after touring

0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:41.680
<v Speaker 1>the woods in the sugar house, I could tell that

0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.920
<v Speaker 1>the reason for their success is because they all rely

0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.080
<v Speaker 1>on each other. Like Elliott said, none of them can

0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.680
<v Speaker 1>be replaced, and seeing them work together, that is abundantly clear.

0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.600
<v Speaker 1>But just as much as a family depending on each

0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.480
<v Speaker 1>other to make a livelihood, a lot of their business

0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.560
<v Speaker 1>depends on the community too. There's a lot of a

0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.680
<v Speaker 1>lot of hoops to jump through, a lot of different

0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.320
<v Speaker 1>roadblocks along the way. But with the support of of

0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:10.680
<v Speaker 1>the community, um, you know it, Uh, it's made it

0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.840
<v Speaker 1>all happen. In return, they've actually given opportunities to their

0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.480
<v Speaker 1>neighbors that didn't even exist before, like the Stewarts leasing

0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.160
<v Speaker 1>trees from their neighbors each year at a dollar apiece.

0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:25.320
<v Speaker 1>It kind of gives landowners of Avenue to to make

0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:27.480
<v Speaker 1>a little money off their property. And you know, it

0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.680
<v Speaker 1>adds up fast as the least payment. Um, so they

0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.920
<v Speaker 1>appreciate a check in the spring and uh in a

0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.400
<v Speaker 1>gallon of stirrup or whatever, and so like it's a

0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:38.840
<v Speaker 1>kind of a new way to make a little and

0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.560
<v Speaker 1>come off of a property. I also I have to

0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.720
<v Speaker 1>mention a few other byproducts of the Stewart's maple business

0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:48.160
<v Speaker 1>that really blew my mind. First, right next to that

0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.400
<v Speaker 1>swimming pool sized tank filled with sap is an equally

0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.960
<v Speaker 1>big tank filled with crystal blue water. This year, we'll

0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.720
<v Speaker 1>we'll produce a million gallons of water, a million gallons.

0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:01.400
<v Speaker 1>That's because they actually on the sap through a reverse

0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:05.160
<v Speaker 1>osmosis machine before they boil. Basically, it's just a machine

0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:07.680
<v Speaker 1>that helps separate the water from the sugar so they

0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.040
<v Speaker 1>can save a little bit of money on boiling. That

0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.840
<v Speaker 1>separated water is pure beautiful water that they can sell

0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.240
<v Speaker 1>to a bottled water company that specializes in just that,

0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:19.840
<v Speaker 1>and um, we have a contract with them to start

0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:24.440
<v Speaker 1>selling it as tree filtered organic water. Pretty cool. Second,

0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.200
<v Speaker 1>all those trails that they've made to work on their

0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.800
<v Speaker 1>lines are now open to everyone as a public hiking

0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.920
<v Speaker 1>trail system, which I think is just amazing. And lastly,

0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:39.600
<v Speaker 1>they've inadvertently become environmental warriors of sorts. That's because the

0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:41.760
<v Speaker 1>way that the stewarts are growing and the more land

0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.480
<v Speaker 1>that they occupy, it means that they play a big

0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.000
<v Speaker 1>role in the landscape around them thriving. So they regularly

0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.360
<v Speaker 1>work with a forester to always make sure that they're

0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.120
<v Speaker 1>tapping responsibly and with the least thing that they do

0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:57.120
<v Speaker 1>for their neighbors. Elliott preaches the long term economic value

0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.960
<v Speaker 1>of sugaring versus cutting down a tree for its lumber.

0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.200
<v Speaker 1>If we can promote the value of the woods, they

0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.960
<v Speaker 1>won't be cut down because there's more value to keeping

0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:09.520
<v Speaker 1>them standing. Like sugaring, UM is really tied to the

0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.240
<v Speaker 1>forest health real heavily, and uh, you know, we're really

0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.680
<v Speaker 1>reliant on on the healthy woods, which is what we're

0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:21.520
<v Speaker 1>trying to always work to achieve that. Just as the

0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.280
<v Speaker 1>maple syrup that they make now is a perfect representation

0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:27.119
<v Speaker 1>of the land, they are becoming a big part of

0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:29.719
<v Speaker 1>the area's identity, and with each other to rely on,

0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.080
<v Speaker 1>they only have plans to keep growing. You know, we've

0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.600
<v Speaker 1>grown the our our business to where our business kind

0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:39.719
<v Speaker 1>of our sandbox is a lot bigger than it used

0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:41.560
<v Speaker 1>to be. I guess is a simple way to put

0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.320
<v Speaker 1>a giant playground. I mean, we were always in the

0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:48.320
<v Speaker 1>woods and uh building forts in the woods. Uh, our

0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:51.440
<v Speaker 1>hands are always dirty, our clothes are always dirty. We're

0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.600
<v Speaker 1>always outside and uh, you know, this work is literally

0:17:54.640 --> 0:18:00.439
<v Speaker 1>no different than my childhood. You know, it's literally the

0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.320
<v Speaker 1>same exact thing where it's the same hill. You know,

0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.520
<v Speaker 1>it's the uh the same area, and uh you know

0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:08.719
<v Speaker 1>I can get out there and enjoy it literally what

0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.480
<v Speaker 1>we did as as kids, you know, and uh, it's

0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:52.080
<v Speaker 1>it's fun. We're on the job my motus. Gray, thanks

0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.480
<v Speaker 1>for listening to On the Job, brought to you by

0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:59.320
<v Speaker 1>Express Employment Professionals. Find out more at Express pros dot com.

0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:01.840
<v Speaker 1>This season of On the Job is produced by Audiation

0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:06.040
<v Speaker 1>and dread Seat Ventures. Our executive producer is Sandy Smallens.

0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.760
<v Speaker 1>Our producer is Otis Gray. The show is mixed by

0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:13.359
<v Speaker 1>Matt Noble at The Loft in Bronxville, New York. Find

0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.720
<v Speaker 1>us on I Heart Radio and Apple Podcasts. If you

0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:19.840
<v Speaker 1>liked what you heard, please consider rating or reviewing the

0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:23.640
<v Speaker 1>show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. We'll see

0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:27.240
<v Speaker 1>you next time. For more inspiring stories about discovering your

0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:42.720
<v Speaker 1>life's work. Audiation