Thurman Maple Days

After living in New York for 25 years we decided to do something we haven't done before. Go see where they make maple syrup.  In the olden days they would tap the sugar maple trees and then hang a bucket to collect the sap.  Now they all use tubing that runs downhill and collects in storage tanks.

The first place we went to was Toad Hill Maple Farm.  They built this beautiful building in 2010 from trees that were downed on their property.  The tanks above hold the sap until they need it.  Then they have tubes that take it from here into the evaporator below. 

 

They said you have to boil 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of maple syrup.  And that as the weeks pass you have to boil 50 or 60 gallons to get 1 gallon.

We got to go into the kitchen where they had all kinds of maple things.  Maple cotton candy, maple caramel corn, maple toffee peanuts, maple syrup, maple cream, and maple sugar.  Yum!

When we first got there they hadn't started boiling the sap yet. When they did the steam from the boiling process filled the room and the smell was heavenly! Of course we had to go to the gift shop and buy some syrup.

Sadly for everyone it was a cold, snowy day.  It was too cold for the sap to be running.  So we never got to actually see that part of the process.  However, it had been warmer the day before and it seemed like everyone had saved what sap they had gotten on Friday until Saturday so they could show all the tourists the process.  I'm sure glad they did.

The next place we went to was the Adirondack Gold Maple Farm.

Three generations of the same family have run this maple farm for 80 years.

It was really interesting.  They actually have a much larger evaporator in another building, but since they had so little sap they used the smaller evaporator in the old building.  I was glad they did because we got to see they way it used to be. We bought some maple toffee peanuts and some maple sugar while we were there.

At the Valley Road Maple Farm we ate pancakes with maple syrup.  It was so good.  While we were waiting to eat our pancakes we sampled some of the things they'd made with maple.  We had a dip made with cream cheese, cool whip, and maple sugar that was divine.  So we bought some more maple sugar so we could make some when we got home.

Our last stop of the day was at Hidden Hollow Maple Farm. This place is run by two generations who work to produce all the yummy stuff. They had a window into their evaporator and Glen took this picture looking at the sap boiling.

All in all it was a fun day, and something that I can cross off my NY bucket list!