NEW HOPE- When you think of tapping sugar maples to make maple syrup, is your mental image anything like mine - an old-fashioned vision of metal buckets hanging from trees?

Forget these romantic notions, because sugarhouses are state-of-the-art these days. They look more like something you'd see in a science museum - at least at Schoolyard Sugarbush in New Hope it does. This sugarbush, the woods where the sugar maple trees grow and are tapped, resembles a vast outdoor laboratory, with continuous plastic pipelines running from tree to tree carrying the flowing sap, Tinkertoys, like connectors adjusted daily to monitor air pressure, and a clear box which collects the sap from blue tubes all across the forest, releasing it all in one big dump into a stainless steel holding tank. Vehicles transport the sap up the road a few miles to the sugarhouse, where the fragrant sweet smell and telltale steam rising from the roof tell you this is where the sap gets processed: 55 gallons of sap boil down to one gallon of syrup.

Schoolyard Sugarbush, named for the one-room schoolhouse on the corner, is a family operation run by Dan Weed, who got hooked on making maple syrup 14 years ago when his sister, still in high school, was given a hobby version of an evaporator. Dan comes from a long line of local food producers, his grandfather started New Hope Mills; the old mill is just up the road. Dan's father Don, soft-spoken and articulate, helps with the maple production. He spent some time one chilly-yet-sunny recent afternoon to give me a tour of the operation.

The sugarbush itself is on a sharp slope of land of unmeasured acreage, running down almost to the edge of Skaneateles Lake. Don is unsure precisely how many trees are tapped, but he estimates somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000. Each tap yields a quart of sap on average. Don says his son's goal is to produce up to 750 gallons of syrup per year, although there are many factors which conspire against bountiful sap production, most notably the vagaries of weather.

Sap only runs when nights go down to 25 degrees and daytime temperatures hit 40 degrees in the early spring months between February and April. Other natural factors include amounts of sunlight, rainfall, wind, barometric pressure and tent caterpillars.

Schoolyard Sugarbush produces several varieties of certified organic maple syrup: Grade A light, medium, and dark amber, and my favorite#*being the “maple-iest” of all - Grade B. Other maple products include maple candy, granulated maple sugar, cotton candy and their award-winning maple cream (chosen as “food product of the year,” out of 150,000 vendors, at the 2005 World Food Show in Chicago, as awarded by the Kalamazoo Gazette).

In the maple syrup market, their organic certification is somewhat unique. I wondered what could possibly make their maple syrup “organic.”

I wondered, “Wouldn't all maple syrup be organic?”

Don informs me that while chemical fertilizers and sprays in the woods are not permissible, admittedly these are rarely used in any sugarbush, organic or otherwise. However, there is one ubiquitous product which the Weeds never touch, a defoaming agent that is found in virtually all maple syrup products not certified organic. These chemicals are FDA-approved and not required to be included on the ingredient label. The reason they are relied on so heavily in many commercial operations is that sap foams - a lot - when it is being boiled down. This foam contains a large percentage of water which retards the evaporation process, a critical step in syrup production. Don feels dubious about the safety of ingesting these defoaming agents even though it is widely believed the chemicals boil off.

Don is proud of his son's business not just for the superior product, but also for the contributions made towards environmental health. He recounts a recent visit from a Cornell Sugar Maple Program scientist who walked the sugarbush and was impressed by the health of his woods. Not only do the Weeds carefully prune and tend their trees, the modern plastic equipment they use is less invasive than the metal spiles and high-tension wire of yore which cut into the trees. Don and Dan use plastic spouts which heal over in a year's time, while the plastic tubing is suspended between trees rather than wrapped tightly around.

After touring the sales booth, sugarhouse and outdoor sugarbush, Don leaves me with his favorite historical maple syrup story: Millard Fillmore, who grew up in a one-room cabin in nearby Summerhill, was cradled as a baby in an old sap trough. As an adult he was once asked, “So what's your advice to raising a President? He answered, ”Raise him in a maple syrup trough!“

Julia Reich, of Scipio Center is owner of Julia Reich Design, a graphic design studio, and self-proclaimed “foodie,” with interests in cooking (and eating)

If you go

What: 13th annual New York Maple Weekend

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 29 and 30

Where: Schoolyard Sugarbush in New Hope and other regional sugarhouses

For more: Visit www.mapleweekend.com

What's a localvore?

“Localvores” are people committed to eating and learning about foods grown close to home. Localvores prefer to:

• Eat healthy, delicious food grown and farmed near where they live

• Establish relationships with like-minded food producers and consumers

• Ensure that farm animals are treated well while alive and humanely when processed for food

• Reduce their impact on the environment