Dates set for the 2017 New York State Maple Tour for maple producers to tour North Country Maple Farms

For immediate release 07/1/2017:

Dates set for the 2017 New York State Maple Tour for maple producers to tour North Country Maple Farms.

The Lewis County Maple Producers Association will be hosting the 2017 New York State Maple tour. The tour is scheduled for August 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th. Attendees from across the Empire State will have the opportunity to visit local maple syrup producers, examine their facilities, and engage fellow producers. The tour includes a stop at Shultz’s Family Cheese, one of the area’s leading producers of farm fresh cheese curd. The tour will also feature a trade show and banquet at the Ridgeview Inn in Lowville, NY. Participants will be bused to each stop.

A brief summary on currently scheduled stops is listed below. More detailed information and write-ups on additional sites will be forthcoming. Information on pricing will be available soon and updates will be issued as needed. Registration materials will be available at cornellmaple.com, nysmaple.com and ccelewis.org.

Any inquiries about the tour may be directed to: Jake Moser 315-486-7933 or Shawn Massey 315-783-5586

Sunday night social hour and trade show.

No need to just check in with us this year on Sunday and retire to your hotel room. For this year’s tour we are offering a Sunday night social gathering to go along with our trade show vendors, all held at the Ridge View Inn. We are also honored to be featuring two guest speakers for the evening festivities.

NYS Maple Specialist Steve Childs has agreed to do a talk on the different off flavors that can occur in Maple Syrup. This is a very hands on, and taste challenging seminar for those willing participants.

Our second speaker will be Mr. Jeff Goulet from Lapierre Equipment. Mr. Goulet is going to discuss the benefits of using a 1/4in bit and spile vs. the traditional 5/16 tap. As always Mr. Goulet will be bringing his high energy presentation ability backed by his vast knowledge and research on this topic.

As we all know with all these activities one could work up an appetite. Don’t fear because we have you covered in that department also. Awaiting our guests be 5 different choices of hot and cold appetizers for the evening. We will be offering Buffalo Beef Skewers, Traditional Buffalo chicken wings (2-3 flavors), a warm spinach artichoke dip, a vegetable platter, and finally a cheese and cracker platter featuring local Lewis County cheeses.

Of course within Ridgeview Inn there will be a fully operational cash bar so those that just want to sit down and talk Maple with other fellow guests.

Tour Stops Monday

Widrick Maple

Wdrick Maple, owned by Phil and Alayne Widrick, has been in business 8 years and features 10,000 taps. This is a woods stop featuring a Tap Track vacuum monitoring system and tank level sensors. The Widricks also employ an innovative method of getting electric to distant points in the sugarbush utilizing high voltage wire and transformers. Sap is gathered with a milk truck and concentrated with reverse osmosis. They boil on a 4’ x 16’ oil fired evaporator. Finished syrup is run through a 10” filter press and stored in stainless steel drums.

Massey Ranch

Massey Ranch, owned by Shawn and Meghan Massey, has been in business 8 years and features 1,100 taps. The sugarbush has 700 taps on vacuum and 400 buckets. Sap is gathered with a tractor and a homemade gathering trailer and stored in stainless steel tanks.

Sap is processed through a pre-heater and wood fired 2’ x 8’ evaporator. Finished syrup is filtered with a filter press and canned in plastic, glass and tin containers. Their average annual production is 300 gallons. Products for sale include maple syrup, granulated maple sugar, maple cream, maple sugar shapes and maple cotton candy. Their maple products are sold at the shanty and at the family owned furniture store. Massey Ranch also grows pumpkins. The offer tours and participate in Maple Weekend.

Farm House Maple

ouse Maple, owned by Tom and Marsha Maxon, has been in business 3 years and features 2,000 taps all on vacuum. Sap is pumped to the sugar house where it is stored in a 1,600 gallon tank. Sap is processed using an RO and boiled in a 3’ x 10’ evaporator that is fired with wood pellets. A wide variety of maple products are sold. They participate in Maple Weekend.

Rudd’s Family Maple Syrup

The Rudd Family has been in the maple business since 1921. Their 1,500 taps utilize a tubing system on gravity and vacuum provided by a sap puller. They have used vacuum for 45 years. Sap is also gathered with a tractor and 400 gallon tank. The Rudd’s operation features a new, steel sided, energy efficient sugar house which is adjacent to their newly planted orchard.

Inside the sugar house, they concentrate sap with a Leader Hero reverse osmosis system and boil in a 2’x6’ Leader Revolution evaporator. Syrup is finished on a 2’x3’ Sunrise finishing pan and run through a 4 bank filter press. The Rudd’s have a candy and cream machine. They sell syrup, molded sugar, cream, and Grandma Beulah’s “Famous Popcorn” directly from their farm. They promote their business through Facebook, conduct tours, participate in Maple Weekend and provide an annual free breakfast.

Lazarus Sugar Shanty

Lazarus Sugar Shanty is owned by Jason and Lacy King. This operation primarily boils sap brought in by others on a share system. In total they process sap from 1,800 taps that is trucked to the sugar house and stored in bulk milk tanks. Their 30’x60’ sugar house is partially constructed from recycled materials and features a back-in sap unloading bay and a firing pit. In the future, they plan to add a covered sap storage lean-to.

Inside the sugar house, sap is filtered with a household water filter and run through a Waterguy reverse osmosis system. Concentrate is boiled on a 4’x14’ Leader evaporator and a Leader finishing pan, then run through a filter press. They average 250 to 300 gallons per year. Finished syrup is stored in 40 gallon drums then canned into plastic and glass or made into candy and cream. Products are sold both wholesale and retail. Private tours are offered.

Beattie’s Tug Hill Maple Syrup

Beattie’s Tug Hill Maple Syrup is owned and operated by David Beattie in Lorraine, NY. This 4 year old business includes 1,200 taps. Sap is collected through a tubing system on vacuum from a managed wood lot. They also make use of a John Deer Gator and pumps to move sap to stainless steel storage tanks. The Beattie sugar house boils sap, start to finish, on a 2’x4’ wood fired evaporator. No reverse osmosis is used in this operation, but they do utilize a piggyback pan. The recently constructed sugar house features a kitchen, boiling room and a large wood shed.

The Beattie’s filter their finished syrup with a filter press and average 175 gallons per year. Syrup is stored in stainless steel barrels, then canned in plastic and glass bottles. They also produce maple cream and maple candy with their cream and candy machines. Their maple products are sold both wholesale and retail in stores. Beattie’s Tug Hill Maple Syrup offers tours and participates in Maple Weekend.

Tuesday Tour Stops

Adirondack Sugarworks

Adirondack Sugarworks is a certified organic operation owned by Ben Bradish. His 5,400 taps are all on tubing under vacuum. Sap is collected both by tubing direct to the sugarhouse and with a 1,175 gallon tank on a trailer. The sap is concentrated with RO then boiled in a LaPierre Force 5, 5’x14’ wood-fired evaporator with an automatic draw-off. Finished syrup is run through a filter press and stored in stainless steel drums. He made 3,185 gallons last year using about 9 cords of firewood. Syrup is canned in plastic and glass and is sold retail at roadside stands, stores and tourist attractions. Ben’s organic syrup is also sold wholesale to organic oriented stores and restaurants.

Kraeger’s Maple Syrup

Kraeger’s Maple Syrup, owned by Michael and Lisa Kraeger, has been in business since 1923 and features 6,500 taps. This operation is mostly on vacuum tubing but also features 1,500 buckets. Sap is gathered with a truck, tractor and by hand. Sap is concentrated with an RO and steam-away then boiled on a wood fired 5’ x 14’ Leader Vortex evaporator with a bubbler. Their finished syrup is filtered with a 10 inch filter press and stored in stainless steel barrels. Syrup is sold retail and wholesale and they participate in Maple Weekend.

Shultz Family Cheese

Shultz Family Cheese is owned and operated by Sue, Joe, and Bronson Shultz. We have a 40 cow dairy farm which produces the milk we use to process our fresh cheese curd. We graze our cows on pasture through the summer months and feed them forages that we harvest from the farm through the winter. We began making fresh cheese curd five years ago. We built a 20’X20’ processing room attached to our milk house and purchased a 460 gallon cheese vat. The milk never has to be pumped on to a truck, hauled to a plant, and pumped into holding tank; it is just pumped directly from our bulk tank to the cheese vat. We process two times per week from Memorial Day through New Year’s Day and once a week through the winter. Each batch makes approximately 460 pounds of cheese. We sell our cheese curd to a few local stores and it is used in dishes in a few local restaurants.

Markham’s Maple Shanty

The Cortney Markham family has been in business for 20 years. Their 3,200 tap operation features a 4’ x 12’ oil-fired evaporator with a custom built arch and a brand new sugarhouse constructed in 2017. The Markham’s have 18 years of experience working with vacuum and their current collection system includes 3/16” tubing on high vacuum. Sap is gathered from the woods using a tractor and 1,000 gallon tank, then stored in a 3,000 gallon Lapierre tank. They concentrate their sap with a Lapierre 2000 Turbo and store the concentrate in a 1,200 indoor storage tank. Concentrate is preheated then boiled in their oil-fired rig. Their future plans include upgrading evaporator pans.

The Markham’s produce an average of 1,500 gallons per year. Their syrup is canned in plastic and glass containers. They also produce a diverse array of value added products including maple cream, maple sugar cakes, granulated sugar and maple pepper garlic rub. Their products are retailed through online sales, local establishments and craft shows. Markham’s Maple Shanty also hosts tours for local schools and youth groups.

The American Maple Museum: There are 3 floors of displays in the museum. Audio tapes explain many of the exhibits. On the first floor visitors will find a replica of a sugar house, maple syrup containers and sugar molds.

On the second level are exhibits of early syrup making techniques and equipment.Souvenirs and maple products are available in the Gift Shop. Maple syrup production and logging go hand in hand thus the third floor is devoted to displays of logging tools and a replica of a lumber camp kitchen and the Maple Hall of Fame.

Tour accommodations:

Monday Breakfast

We are asking everybody to join the staff at Ridgeview Inn for our Maple tour breakfast. Our breakfast will consist of: Pancakes with real Lewis county maple syrup, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage, home fries, OJ, apple juice, coffee, and water

Monday Lunch

For lunch we are going to be joining our friends the Mannsville Fire Department for a traditional BBQ chicken lunch. We will be serving Cornell BBQ chicken along with potatoes and green beans.

Monday Night Banquet.

After a busy first day of the tour we hope you have brought your appetite once again. Our banquet meal will most certainly be a treat to everybody’s taste buds. This year we are offering a buffet style meal with the following choices:

Beef tips (house cut sirloin tips, slowly sautéed in onions, mushrooms, and a homemade Guinness beef gravy)

Roasted chicken (slow roasted season to perfection chicken breast)

Seafood Newburgh (shrimp, scallop, and lobster cooked in a sherry cream sauce)

Fresh Garden Salad

Garlic Smashed Potatoes

Glazed Maple Carrots

And for dessert Apple Crisp

Tuesday Breakfast

Once again we are asking you to join the Ridgeview Inn staff for yet another wonderful breakfast to get your day started. Our Tuesday offerings will be as follows:

French Toast, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Fruit Salad, OJ, Apple Juice, coffee, and water

Tuesday Lunch

For Tuesday we will be joining our friends at the American Maple Museum for a Jerked Pork lunch. This will also include potatoes and beans. Guests are also more than welcome to tour the Museum before or after they eat to see some of the new renovations the American Maple Museum has been doing in the past few years.

Last updated July 6, 2017