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Maple Sugaring

When Two Dutchmen Tried To Create A Maple Sugar Industry

December 16, 2022 by Jaap Jacobs Leave a Comment

portrait of Gerrit BoonThe Holland Land Company is known for its role in settling the western part of upstate New York by acquiring land grants and selling off lots to prospective settlers in the early nineteenth century. Yet its activities in the last decade of the eighteenth century were of a different nature, as the stories of Gerrit Boon and Jan Lincklaen show.

In the last decade of the eighteenth century, two young Dutchmen, Gerrit Boon and Jan Lincklaen, traveled through the densely forested lands of Upstate New York. They eventually identified locations fit for the founding of the new villages of Oldenbarneveld (now Barneveld in Oneida County) and DeRuyter (in Madison County). [Read more…] about When Two Dutchmen Tried To Create A Maple Sugar Industry

Filed Under: Food, History, Western NY Tagged With: Barneveld, Boonville, Cazenovia, Dutch History, Forestry, Fort Schuyler, Holland Land Company, Holland Patent, Immigration, Industrial History, Lincklaen, Lorenzo SHS, Madison County, Maple Sugaring, Maple Trees, Oneida County

Banner Year for Northeast Maple Syrup Makers

June 24, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall Leave a Comment

Maple syrup makers in Thurman, Warren CountyThe stock market may be down, but maple syrup production is up.

New York produced 845 thousand gallons of maple syrup in 2022, breaking the state’s own 75-year-old record from 2019, when its maple industry produced 820,000 gallons of syrup. [Read more…] about Banner Year for Northeast Maple Syrup Makers

Filed Under: Food, Nature Tagged With: Food, Maple Sugaring, Maple Trees

Backyard Maple Syrup Maker Earns ‘Braggin’ Rights’

May 13, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Sue Wilder, president of the Hadley Business Association presenting to Colton and Allie Clift Braggin’ Rights for producing the best tasting maple syrupColton and Allie Clift received their Braggin’ Rights for producing the best tasting maple syrup made in their backyard at the Hadley Maple in April Festival in Saratoga County.

The Clift’s live in Argyle within a 50 mile radius of Hadley, they have 40 taps and boil their own sap. This is the fourth year the Hadley Business Association has awarded to locally produced maple syrup makers their braggin’ rights. [Read more…] about Backyard Maple Syrup Maker Earns ‘Braggin’ Rights’

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Food, Nature Tagged With: Hadley, Maple Sugaring, Saratoga County

Maple Syrup Production Focus of New TAUNY Video

April 22, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Boiling shack at Yancey's Sugarbush, Croghan, NYTraditional 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. [Read more…] about Maple Syrup Production Focus of New TAUNY Video

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, Food, Western NY Tagged With: Croghan, Documentary, Lewis County, Maple Sugaring, TAUNY

This Weekend In A New York Sugar Shack

March 19, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

Mike Todriff of Chestertown fires a vintage sugar boiler this week by Shannon HoulihanIt’s that time of year. The sap is running and the buckets and tanks are filling. Backyard syrup makers large and small have been taking advantage of the recent sugaring weather to fire their arches and settle into the ancient and accepted rite of watching the boil.

Whatever you call it – a sugar party, sugaring-off, maple days – people will gather this weekend in old sugar shacks across Upstate New York around rising steam for one of the great revelries of the season. [Read more…] about This Weekend In A New York Sugar Shack

Filed Under: Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Maple Sugaring, Maple Trees

Sugaring Season: Maple Sap Runs On Gas

March 11, 2021 by Paul Hetzler Leave a Comment

firing an 1890s sugar boiler by Shannon HoulihanSome foods give you gas, but March is the time of year when gas gives you a delicious food. Maple syrup, which is nutritious enough to be listed by the US Department of Agriculture as a food, is carbon dioxide-powered. If it wasn’t for a bunch of little gas bubbles in the wood or xylem tissue, maple sap would not flow.

Who knew that trees were carbonated? [Read more…] about Sugaring Season: Maple Sap Runs On Gas

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Food, Nature Tagged With: Food, Maple Sugaring, Maple Trees, nature

Northern Tree Migrations: Nature on the Move

August 6, 2020 by Paul Hetzler Leave a Comment

Sugar Maple courtesy Wikimedia user Bruce MarlinTo a highly mobile species like humans, the fact that other animals relocate their families – or entire populations – isn’t a big surprise. We know historical migrations have been the norm, though the fossil record shows that generally these changes happened at a snail’s pace.

The “Great American Interchange” in which northern animals spread southward and South American critters expanded north during the Pliocene Epoch, took a million years. Give or take a few, I assume. [Read more…] about Northern Tree Migrations: Nature on the Move

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Climate Change, Environmental History, Forestry, Maple Sugaring, Maple Trees, nature, trees, Wildlife

Adirondack Wildfire: The Destruction of Long Lake West

July 21, 2020 by Mike Prescott Leave a Comment

Damage-by-Laura-Von-Rosk-210x300Over the years I have put my canoe into Adirondack waters at the Lows Lake Lower Dam (Bog River Dam, 1907) and paddled the meandering Bog River Flow upstream to Hitchins Pond.  From there you can carry around the Lows Lake Dam (Upper Dam, 1903*) and out on to Lows Lake.

Occasionally a day paddle and a short hike around Hitchins Pond is in order. I often walk the old Maple Valley Railroad bed, part of the Horse Shoe Forestry Company established by Abbot Augustus “Gus” Low in 1900. If you know where to look, there are rail sidings where A. A. Low’s maple sugarhouses once stood. [Read more…] about Adirondack Wildfire: The Destruction of Long Lake West

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Fires, Logging, Long Lake, Lows Lake, Maple Sugaring, railroads, Sabattis, wildfires

Covid-19 Impacting Maple Sugaring Season

April 6, 2020 by Richard Gast Leave a Comment

Brandy Brook Maple Farm and Olde Tyme Winery fruit winesAs I start to write this, it’s raining and 50°F outside. Several days of above freezing nighttime temperatures are in the forecast, as well. It appears that the maple sugaring season is quickly coming to an end. Most of the producers that I’ve talked with are saying it’s been an average to good season. [Read more…] about Covid-19 Impacting Maple Sugaring Season

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Food, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: local food, Maple Sugaring, Maple Trees, nature, wine

Maple Sugaring Has A Long History

April 4, 2019 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Mike Todriff firing the sugar boiler in 2018 (Shannon Houlihan photo)I don’t think there’s a more magnificent forest tree or more glorious shade tree than the sugar maple (Acer saccharum); a deciduous tree that matures in 30-50 years, generally growing to between 70 and 90 feet tall, with a crown that turns a brilliant, fiery yellow, orange, or red at summer’s end. The sugar maple is the official state tree of New York, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. It’s also the national tree of Canada. And the maple leaf is the Canadian national emblem. [Read more…] about Maple Sugaring Has A Long History

Filed Under: History, Nature Tagged With: Maple Sugaring, nature

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