Two important tasks that many people have done over the years in winter in Norwich are collecting maple syrup and harvesting ice.
“This sap bucket comes from our farm. I think my great-great-grandfather built these sap buckets.”
This next clip is from an interview from the film “Speaking of Norwich… Memories of a Vermont Town” celebrating Vermont’s bicentennial of statehood in 1991. The film was sponsored by the Norwich Women’s Club and produced by Robert Franzoni.
“I was 9 years old, the year that we harvested on the river, and I remember that the big saw, it was twice as long as I was tall.”
Fred Ladd talks about ice harvesting on the Connecticut River
Ice Harvesting, photograph from Dartmouth College collections