Jack Drury checks the thickness of maple syrup with a hydrometer Thursday at the Mark Twain Mapleworks in Saranac Lake.
(Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)
LAKE PLACID — New York State Maple Weekends are being held this year on March 16-17 and March 23-24, and several producers in the Tri-Lakes region are participating.
Sponsored by the New York State Maple Producers’ Association, producers are usually open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day at most locations. The sap’s been running pretty well in the Adirondack Park for more than a month.
Adam Wild, director of Cornell University’s Uihlein Maple Research Forest, was standing outside the sugarhouse on Bear Cub Lane in Lake Placid on a warm, sunny Friday afternoon, March 8, while research technician Keith Otto was inside boiling sap into maple syrup. He described this year’s maple season as “a strange one.”
“It’s an early start, but hopefully we’ll keep going,” Wild said. “We had some sap runs in early February. … Sometimes it got cold and then it would warm up again. But we’re over a third of a production of a crop that’s harvested by early March, which is very strange.”
March 8 was the eighth time this season the Uihlein Maple Research Forest had boiled, having produced 847 gallons before that day. The first boil was on Feb. 12.
Jack Drury feeds his wood-fired evaporator Thursday at the Mark Twain Mapleworks in Saranac Lake.
(Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)
“Usually we’re just getting started in early to mid-March really getting going,” Wild added. “And to not have any snowpack in the woods, it feels more like April in the woods in a way, mid-April.”
Tom Manitta, who operates the Heaven Hill Farm sugarhouse, said Tuesday, March 12 that the maple season is going well so far at their location near the end of Bear Cub Lane.
Jack Drury, who operates the Mark Twain Mapleworks at his home at the end of Lake Street in Saranac Lake, described his season so far in his Bushwhack Jack’s Tracts column titled, “Tales of the maple linemen: A sweet story,” published Tuesday, March 12 in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.
“This maple season has been as squirrely as they come,” Drury wrote. “Early sap runs had me scrambling to get trees tapped. Then we got a week of midwinter frigid temperatures with trees holding on to their sap tighter than my grandmother held onto her purse. March started with screeching winds that didn’t impact the sap run, but caused havoc to my maple lines that run thousands of feet through the forest. Immediately after the storm, I was too busy to check my sap lines because I was boiling the sap I’d collected and that of fellow sap farmer Walt Linck, the Sultan of Sap Obsession.”
The Mark Twain Mapleworks will be one of five locations in the Tri-Lakes region to offer sugarhouse tours during the two Maple Weekends. The complete list is below.
Jack Drury watches maple sap boil in his wood-fired evaporator Thursday at the Mark Twain Mapleworks in Saranac Lake.
(Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)
¯ Cornell University’s Uihlein Maple Research Forest, 157 Bear Cub Lane, Lake Placid. 518-523-9337.
¯ Heaven Hill Farm, 302 Bear Cub Lane, Lake Placid. 315-412-5079.
¯ Mark Twain Mapleworks, 614 Lake St., Saranac Lake. 518-891-5915. www.marktwainmapleworks.com.
¯ Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center, 8023 State Route 30, Paul Smiths. 518-327-6241. www.paulsmithsvic.org.
¯ The Wild Center, 45 Museum Dr, Tupper Lake. 518-359-7800. www.wildcenter.org.
Jack Drury poses Thursday between his wood-fired evaporator and maple products for sale at the Mark Twain Mapleworks in Saranac Lake.
(Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)
The Wild Center will be hosting a Pancake Brunch at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 16 in the Great Hall. It will include maple trivia giveaways and pancake art competitions. Artist-designed pancakes are included with admission (one per person as time and supplies last). The brunch will be available to ticketed visitors for an additional charge of $13.25, with a lighter option for $8.50. Also, guided tours of the on-site sugar shack will be available to ticketed visitors.
The Wild Center this year is extending an invitation to local community members to join its Community Maple Project.
“Residents living within a five-mile radius of the museum are encouraged to participate by tapping maple trees in their own yards, with assistance and equipment provided by The Wild Center,” a press release states. “Once collected, the sap will be returned to the Center for processing into maple syrup, with participating community members receiving 70% of the syrup produced from their contributed sap.”
Anyone interested in joining the Community Maple Project should email maple@wildcenter.org.
“We are thrilled to be part of New York Maple Weekends and share the magic of maple sugaring with our community,” said Nick Gunn, marketing director at The Wild Center, in a press release. “It’s an opportunity for people of all ages to connect with nature, learn about our local environment, and celebrate the arrival of spring.”
Learn more about New York State Maple Weekends at www.mapleweekend.com.
