Andrew Nordell ‘23, took up his interest in sugaring in high school, and now he’s harvesting sap from sugar maples right here on Union College’s picturesque campus. Nordell’s interest in sugaring, or harvesting sap from trees, began to grow in his first few years at Union while participating in sugaring activities “on a much smaller scale” than the projects he’s now in the midst of through Ozone House. 

Through Ozone House, Andrew began helping out Union’s Octopus’s Garden at the beginning of the fall term last year where Nordell met Hugh Jenkins, an English Professor at Union College with a hobby in harvesting and processing sap to make maple syrup. Jenkins and Nordell would work alongside each other in the early days to process sap from the trees with Hugh’s own processing machine. 

Noticing he and Nordell’s shared passion Jenkins advised Andrew to apply for a grant so that they could scale the harvesting here at Union. Nordell shared that he was tasked with coming up with a budget, a mission statement and an outline of how he wanted to go about pursuing the harvest. He explained how he drafted a materials list complete with an evaporator, hydrometer, filters, metal taps, buckets and plastic tubes all essential in the harvesting and processing of the sap procedure. 

Furthermore, he shared that throughout his process he and Jenkins would meet with arborist Joe Canti. Through their discussion they agreed that processing “the liquid gold from” the sugar maples on campus was a great way not only to appreciate the vast amounts of natural resources of the campus, but that it was also a great way for the Union community to experience the true meaning of “farm to table,” or in their case tree to table. 

Andrew Nordell and Ozone held their first ever tree tapping session at the end of the 2020-2021 winter term, but because it was raining turnout was low. However, Andrew said Ozone might be hosting more tapping sessions in the remaining months of the school year, but will definitely be open to hosting more sessions next year. Additionally, he was hopeful that as long as the weather held up, turnout would improve at their events. 

If you’re passionate about sustainability, and promoting environmental living Andrew encourages the community to look out for Ozone’s vegan pop-ups this spring term, or get involved with the maintenance Octopus’s Garden. Lastly, if you want a taste of that “liquid gold,” on your morning pancakes from West or Upperclass Dining, the syrup Andrew has tirelessly worked to produce, he promises a flash sale of maple syrup in front of Reamer in the coming weeks, and the proceeds will go towards buying seeds for Octopus’s Garden.