Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY) has announced the release of Yancey’s Sugarbush: First Crop of the Year as part of their Traditions of the Season video series. Yancey’s Sugarbush is a 30-minute documentary that features a family-owned sugaring operation in Croghan, Lewis County, NY, that has been in the Yancy family since 1844.
Haskell and Jane Yancey, the fourth generation working in the sugarbush, made the most of a short 2021 season, with the help of their children and other seasonal helpers. The video, filmed and produced by TAUNY Communications Director Xiuke Wei, documents the entire process of sugaring, from tapping the trees, gathering sap with horses and tractors, to boiling and canning.
Over the years, the Yanceys have resisted pressures to convert entirely to the use of plastic tubing and vacuum pumps for gathering sap, and continue to gather with buckets and horse-drawn tanks as well. Each sugaring season, the Yanceys receive visitors from all around the North Country and beyond. To them, sugaring is a family tradition, and a connection to the community that they have built over the years.
Yancey’s Sugarbush: First Crop of the Year can be viewed on TAUNY’s YouTube channel, as well as earlier episodes from the Traditions of the Seasons series.
Photo of boiling shack at Yancey’s Sugarbush provided.
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