Sap Shot

In Central New York, we’re proud of what we’ve got. We’re proud of our apples. We’re proud of our Orangemen, even though they keep breaking our hearts. And we should be proud of our maple. It’s a locally produced, healthy, natural product.

But don’t take our word for it; listen to the New York State Maple Producers Association. “We really want to convince folks in New York state that we have this wonderful resource here and that they should try New York state maple,” says association executive director Helen Thomas. “We have a new motto for the New York state product— Taste the Tradition—because it’s something that we’re all proud of. Most of us have trees that are several generations old. It’s kind of a way of life.”

The season of maple production is a precious syrups time. Maple is produced in a mere few weeks ferences in a globally minuscule amount of space. Most temperature of the world’s maple comes from the northeast is United States. According to the U.S. Depart- based ment of Agriculture, last year New York state produced 312,000 gallons of maple syrup. While preference we didn’t hit the 890,000 mark Vermont did, we syrup were the second-highest maple syrup-producing come state in the country. And all of that maple was Saturday, harvested during the short window of roughly Maple the end of February until the beginning of April. Center “It feels like a spring tradition,” says Mat- season thew Critz, maple producer at Cazenovia’s Critz ducers Farms. “When the sap starts running, you know tastings it’s springtime.” When that sap gets going, which requires freezing temperatures at night and thawing during the day, the trees are tapped and the sap collected. The process doesn’t harm the trees at all. “It’s Festival rather like you being asked to give blood for a nity blood test. The amount of blood you give is insig- on nificant to the amount in your body,” explains pancake Karl Wiles of Cedarvale Maple Syrup Co. “The ies, only real danger is anything that might cause rot.” takes Only a small amount of tree tissue around Sunday, the hole is killed, and as the tree grows, the hole is sealed over. “It’s more about not drilling too community, many holes, so the trees can heal,” Critz adds. could Once the sap is removed from the trees, some ern producers use reverse osmosis to filter out some Interstate of the water. The sap is then boiled to remove had the remainder of the water. “We do need to cook and the sap somewhat and evaporate,” Wiles says. “And you’re ending up with a cooked product to that has a 66 percent sugar content.” That per- no centage is the minimum legal sugar content for says pure maple syrup. Festival. The last step before the syrup reaches your the pancakes is to grade it, a system whereby the syrups are categorized based on color. The dif- ferences in color come from the differences in temperature at the time the sap is gathered. “One is not better than another,” Critz says. “It’s all based on personal preference.” Regardless of where your flavor or color preference lies, March and April are prime maple syrup time. While some maple celebrations have come and gone, others continue, peaking on Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, with the Maple Festival in Marathon. Beaver Lake Nature Center holds its final maple celebration of the season this Saturday. In addition, most syrup pro ducers remain open through the season for tours, tastings and visits to the sugarbush.

Maple Mecca

The 41st annual Central New York Maple Festival is a celebration of maple and commu- nity in Marathon, 15 miles south of Cortland on Route 11, complete with an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast, maple goodies of all variet- ies, craft shows and more. This year’s festival takes place this Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Years ago, a committee was formed in the community, and the members asked what they could do to bolster tourist traffic to their south- ern Cortland County village that lies just off Interstate 81. A few members of the committee had been to a maple festival in Burton, Ohio, and decided to attempt the same.

“We had had a terribly tough winter, similar to what we are going through now, and we had no idea whether people would come out or not,” says Connie White, an organizer for the Maple Festival. “It so happened that the weekend of the Maple Festival the sun came out. It was like the whole world came to Marathon. Our local people couldn’t keep up. They ran out of food on the first day, but went home and made more. So that’s how we were born.” There's a pageant on Friday evening during which the high school age girls sing, dance and make a speech. It's then narrowed down by judges to six girls who are then asked questions about the maple production business, as well as their future goals. The girl with the most maple knowledge is chosen as the Maple Queen. The runners-up are the court, and they all act as host- esses for the entire weekend. They visit every booth, select the winning ticket in raffles, and people can ask them questions. Since then, the Maple Festival has undergone quite the evolution. Rain or shine, the weekend- long festival pulls people from all over upstate New York to Marathon, adding more attractions every year. “We now have a {maple} museum presented by the historical society,” White says. “The newly renovated Peck Memorial Library is hosting a meet-the-author event with four locally connected authors. And for the first time, we’re going to have a merry-go-round.” Those authors include John H. Parker, Jr., Darcie Duranceau, Debbie Ann Holmes and sisters Mary Jordan and Joyce Hatch.

If you like maple and the dedicated folks producing it, this festival marks a festive ending to the short season. “There was a salesman who came to Marathon in the late 1800s, and what he said about Marathon is that it had a community spirit and there was a great camaraderie, and I think I can make testimony to that,” White says. “I get people to sign up to volunteer at the pan- cake breakfast, and all kinds of people—from the guy who sits in an office all week to the mechanic—they love doing it. They feel very good giving back to this community.”

For more information, visit www.maplefest.org or call (607) 745-7710. Another maple celebration taking place this weekend is at Critz Farms in Cazenovia. They are serving a breakfast buffet both Saturday and Sun- day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with tours and hayrides offered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free, while breakfast—which includes pancakes, French toast, eggs, ham, potatoes and, naturally, maple syrup—costs $7.50 for adults, $5.50 for ages 8 to 12, and $3.50 for ages 3 to 7. For more information, visit www.critzfarms.com or call 622-3355. Still haven’t gotten enough maple? Head over to Fly Creek Cider Mill, just outside Cooperstown, on May 7 and 8 for a maple syrup tasting. Pure maple syrup from nearby Breezie Maples Farm will be available for tasting, and both admission and parking are free. Breezie Maples Farm is located in Westford, and has recently become certified organic by the USDA, making Breezie the largest organic producer in the state.

For more information on Fly Creek Cider Mill, visit www.flycreekcidermill.com or call 505-6455. To learn more about Breezie Maples Farm and order their products online, visit www.breeziemaples.com or call (877) 627-5330.

Natural Buy 

So what’s the big deal with maple syrup any- way, other than it’s considerably more expensive than the fake stuff? Money doesn’t exactly grow on maple trees, and the other product—known simply as “syrup”—doesn’t cost nearly as much. Say you walk into Wegmans and head toward the syrup aisle: 12 ounces of Wegmans Pure Maple Syrup costs $6.99, while 24 ounces of Mrs. Butterworth’s Syrup sets you back a mere $2.99. So why spend more than twice as much money for half the product?

“It’s not maple syrup, it’s corn syrup with a maple flavor,” says Wiles. “Some of those do have 1 percent or 2 percent real maple syrup, but they’re not real maple syrup.” Hungry Jack Syrup, for example, contains 31 grams of carbohydrates, sugars in the form of corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup.

Take it from any maple syrup producer: There’s nothing like the real thing. “The stuff at the store has nothing to do with maple,” says Kim Enders, maple producer from Red Schoolhouse Maple. “When you do a side-byside taste test, you can hardly believe you put the other stuff on your pancakes.”

Apart from the factor of the “other stuff” masquerading as maple, the health facts make it clear that real maple is the way to go. “People have to remember when they’re eating the fake stuff that it’s sugar made from rice and corn, and caramel coloring. The state of California is thinking of regulating how much {of the coloring} can go into food,” says Thomas. “The closer you can stay to a product that is coming right from the plant, I think the healthier you’ll be. Our bodies were designed to use food as it came in the natural state, not chemicals.”

While not all pure maple syrups are USDAcertified organic—meaning they have “a focus on renewable resources, soil and water conservation, and management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological balance,” among other USDA requirements—many maple producers agree that the product is one of the most natural products available. “First of all, you have no additives of any kind. It’s the most dependable organic product around,” says Wiles. “It almost doesn’t need an organic label, it has to be made that way.”

Other maple producers couldn’t agree more. “Why bother?” asks Critz. “How much more straight natural can you get?” To get your healthy dose of real and local maple syrup, visit the Syracuse Real Food Co-Op, 618 Kensington Road, or a maple producer’s store. Most of them sell their products on-site or online. And don’t stop with just the syrup. Maple comes in all shapes and sizes. Many local producers offer maple sugar, maple cream and even maple candy.

So who do we have to thank for first figuring out that maple trees hold a sap that can be distilled into a yummy sweetener? “The tradition goes back to the fact that the Native Americans in the area had already been making maple for centuries before the white man showed up,” Thomas says. “Through the 1800s, in New York state especially, maple was the primary sweetener that was used. Even as late as the 1930s, New York state production of maple syrup was probably four to five times what it is now. But it shrunk as people got used to white sugar and it became fashionable that you got your sugar at the store.”

But over the years, as people have become more health conscious and the process of producing maple has become more efficient, interest has started to increase. “People are starting to appreciate the goodness of maple,” Thomas says. “Production is up in New York state.”

Since trees were first tapped for sap, the means of making maple syrup have changed drastically. Producers now use tubes to drain the sap from the maple trees. The process of reverse osmosis is employed to help remove water from the sap. “We’ve employed all these new technologies to try to make the system the most efficient,” Enders says.

By now, you know most every reason why maple is God’s early-spring gift to man. If you’re not convinced yet, here’s one last reason to love maple: location, location, location.