What would a morning breakfast of pancakes, waffles or French toast be without maple syrup?

Thanks to 1995 Northwestern Lehigh High School graduate Laura Gagné, her husband, Albert, and stepsons Austin, 19, and Joel Gagné, 16, of Franklin, Vt., area residents can purchase Vermont maple syrup locally.

Gagné is the daughter of Ron and Lorinda Macaulay of Lowhill Township.

She is a graduate of Harcum College, Bryn Mawr, and Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., with an Associate of Science degree in veterinary technology and a Bachelor of Science degree in equine sciences.

Gagné moved to Vermont in 2007 because her family has friends who live there.

“That year, their little log cabin came up for rent,” Gagné said. “I was looking for an adventure so I moved up and took a job with a large animal mobile veterinary service working with dairy cattle, horses and beef cattle.

“This is where I met my future husband, Albert, as he is a hoof trimmer for dairy cattle.”

Gagné didn’t decide to make syrup. Her new husband was already doing that but she decided she liked him a lot, so she stuck around.

“Albert started making syrup because of his heritage,” Gagné said.

“Generations of his family have made syrup, so it is something he grew up doing.

“It didn’t take long to realize it is something that could be built into a business to provide income much like our full-time jobs.

“We are fortunate enough to sugar because we love it and it helps pay the bills.”

Albert Gagné was sugaring before he bought their property - 74 mostly wooded acres.

“He started sugaring this property in 2006,” Laura Gagné said. “At that point, he was purchasing sap to boil.

“The summer of 2007, when we met, we strung the first pipeline in the woods. It was about 1,400 taps.

“Now between what is on our property and what comes from leased woods, all along our road, we have about 16,000 taps.

“All of the sap from the leased woods comes to our sugar house to be boiled.”

The maple syrup is made from the sap of sugar maples and red maples.

“There are not different types of sap,” Laura Gagné explained. “What comes from the tree is what we get.

“We can influence the quality of the sap and ultimately the syrup by keeping our pipeline and equipment well maintained, clean and free of bacteria.”

Laura Gagné said before maple syrup can be made one needs to first evaluate the perspective sugar bush for species of trees, percentage of maples, health and viability of the stand and ease of establishing a sugaring operation.

It is recommended a stand of maples also have multiple other species to help support longevity and biodiversity, Gagné added.

“Depending on which forester you talk to, the woods may need to be logged before setting up a pipeline,” Gagné said. “Pipelines are strung from every tree to the mainlines. The sap will flow from the trees to the mainlines then to the sugarhouse using [a] vacuum.”

After the pipeline is strung and all of the sap has a way to get to the sugar house you’re ready to sugar, she added.

“Every January we tap, which entails drilling a small hole in every tree and placing a spout in that hole,” Gagné said. “We attach the pipeline to that spout and the sap flows to the sugar house.

“Sap comes out of the tree at somewhere between 1 percent and 3 percent sugar content.”

Maple syrup is 66 percent sugar content so it takes a lot of removal of water (concentration) to make syrup, she said.

Gagné said in sugaring there is a “law” termed The Law of 86. It takes 86 gallons of 1 percent sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.

“Once the maple sap is in the sugar house, it is run through a reverse osmosis machine that starts the concentration process,” she explained.

“This machine removes water concentrating the sap to anywhere from 18 percent to 20 percent sugar content. The concentrated sap then goes to the evaporator or sugaring rig.”

The sap then flows into the back of the rig after leaving the reverse osmosis machine and passes through a system of flue pans also termed the back pan.

“From the flue pans the sap flows into the front pans. Here the sap is “finished” into maple syrup,” Gagné said. “From the back of the rig to the front of the rig the temperature increases from about 200 degrees to about 220 degrees. The maple syrup is drawn off the rig and run directly through a filter press.”

The maple syrup is filtered through this press to remove any sugar sands, also known as niter, that have formed during the concentration process, she added.

The syrup is than jugged at no less than 180 degrees.

“After sugaring is over, we spend some time recovering,” she said. “Then, during the summer and fall we maintain the woods and the pipeline.

She said the bulk of the season for making maple syrup is March and April.

Gagné said they have traditionally sold their syrup to a cannery.

“The syrup would come off the filter press and go directly into 42 to 50 gallon barrels,” she added. “The barrels would get picked up and delivered to a cannery that would pump the syrup out of the barrels and into large holding tanks where it was mixed with other maple syrup, graded and jugged up in plastic or glass jars that are sold to the public.

“My father was the one that suggested we offer our syrup to local Pennsylvania stores.”

Gagné’s Borderview Orchards’ pure Vermont maple syrup is available at Wanamakers General Store, Route 143, Lynn Township.