The Ruralist: 4 Places To Savor Maple Syrup Season
It may be mud season, but it's also maple everything season. Here are four places where you can taste the sweetness.
Soukup Farms barrel-aged maple syrup. Photo courtesy Soukup Farms.
The coming of March not only brings longer, sunnier days and warmer temperatures, but also a centuries-old seasonal tradition — maple sugaring. The process of tapping sugar maple trees to collect sap that is then boiled down into maple syrup dates back to the time of the Native Americans. European settlers quickly embraced this practice when they arrived in North America. Today, the tradition remains alive and well.
And thank goodness for that. The sweetness of maple sugaring season helps bridge the gap between winter and spring, and gives us places to visit and reasons to get out when the weather feels raw and uninviting. Many maple farms host annual festivals to celebrate the bounty of this special tree. In fact, New York State even has an official Maple Weekend, this year scheduled for two weekends: March 16-17 and March 23-24. But things are happening throughout the region. Here are a few of the many opportunities where you can join the festivities.
Dutchess County
Soukup Farms in Dover Plains, N.Y. is a family-owned operation that has been tapping maple trees since 1955. Two consecutive Maple Weekends, March 16-17 and 23-24 from 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., will give visitors the opportunity to learn about the process of making maple syrup from start to finish.
Visitors can also enjoy a breakfast of pancakes, waffle sticks, scrambled eggs, home fries, pulled pork, sausage, biscuits and baked beans — all, of course, doused in as much Soukup Farms’ syrup as you want. Breakfast is served from 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Maple candy at Soukup Farms
Litchfield County
Does maple ham and baked beans sound good to you? Head for the town of Plymouth, Connecticut, and make your way to the historic Plymouth Green at the intersection of Routes 6 and 262. That's the site of the Plymouth Maple Festival on Saturday, March 9 from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Visitors can watch sap being boiled on an outdoor fire, taste sugar-on-snow and maple candies, and purchase maple baked goods. Take part in a scavenger hunt, listen to the fiddle and banjo music of Down Home Frolic, and at 11:30, tour the secret passageways of the Underground Railroad in the Henry Terry House.
Berkshire County
Ioka Valley Farm in Hancock, Mass. began its maple operation in 1992 with 13 taps and a kitchen stove. The owners have come a long way since their humble beginnings and now have over 14,000 taps and two evaporators in their sugarhouse. The Farm is open every weekend through early April for tours and tastings (closed Easter Sunday). The big draw is “Pancake Season” at Ioka’s own joint, the former calf barn, now called the Calf-A (one of the cleverest names ever), which serves homemade pancakes, waffles and French toast. Sides of bacon and sausage — and desserts — are available, too. The Calf-A is open on weekends from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Maple products are available for purchase, naturally.
Breakfast at The Calf-A
Columbia County
Maple Leaf Sugaring in Ghent, N.Y. is a family-run, certified organic maple farm owned by Ben and Veronica Madey that began in 2015 with 1,500 taps. The operation has steadily grown each year since, with now more than 8,500 taps. Their reverse osmosis system removes much of the water from the sap before it enters the high-efficiency, wood-fired evaporator. The farm is observing New York State’s Maple Weekend on March 16-17 and 23-24 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. A short forest walk will allow visitors to watch sap dripping from trees followed by a tour of the sugar house for a peek into the syrup-making process. Each visitor will receive complimentary samples of sap, syrup, maple cotton candy and maple cream, and these items will also be available for purchase.
Note: If you’ve lived in or visited the area at this time of year, you know the weather can be unpredictable, so be sure to dress accordingly when heading out to enjoy these events. Our best advice: don’t leave home without your muck boots.
