Marcel Blais, 85, chats with Julien Labonte, 3, Saturday as Labonte’s family tours the Blais Maple Syrup sugar shack in Greene. Blais and his sons started boiling sap in 2012 with turkey fryers. The family now collects sap from about 1,200 taps. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Alain Blais fires up the Blais Maple Syrup pump house Saturday in Greene. Maple sap is collected in the pump house before being delivered to the sugar shack one mile away. “We are hoping for a couple more weeks,” Blais said about the sugaring season. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Alain Blais checks on the tubing that feeds his family’s sugar shack in Greene on Saturday. Blais said a vacuum system pulls sap through the tubes, which is much more efficient than collecting sap by buckets. Blais added that squirrels have chewed through several his tubes this spring. “Squirrels have been a pain,” said Blais. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Greene native Ricky Blais brings Maine maple syrup home to North Carolina after he visits his family in Greene each year. The syrup from Blais Maple Syrup ends up being added to Snow Hands, a dark beer brewed by Haw River Farmhouse Ales in North Carolina. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal