Lake Placid Hosts New York State Maple Tour

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. --- More than 150 of the Empire State’s top maple producers will gather in Lake Placid, N.Y., Sept. 27-29, for the New York State Maple Tour, hosted by the Adirondack Maple Producers Association. The event comes on the heels of this spring’s maple season, which was considered one of the best in recent memory. An estimated 362,000 gallons of syrup was produced in the state, an increase of 10-percent from last year’s production.

“The group meets in different places every year and it’s a great chance for producers to tour different sugarhouses and learn from each other and research different technologies,” explained Mike Farrell, director of Cornell University’s Uihlein Forest, in Lake Placid. “While to some degree this is still a ‘mom and pop’ type industry, with those people producing as a hobby, the industry is changing and becoming more technology based. Producers are learning to be more environmentally friendly, but it’s still labor and energy intensive for the smaller operations.”

While in the region, the producers will visit several Lake Placid area sugarhouses including North Country School, which operates a wood-fired evaporator that boils 400 buckets worth of sap collected by students, and the Uihlein Maple Forest, the 200-plus acre research center and extension field of Cornell University. They will also visit Heaven Hill Farm, Henry Uihlein’s old sugarhouse which has been renovated as a site for teaching local students about syrup production, before traveling north to visit producers in Chazy. When Lake Placid last hosted the tour in 2000, a record 300 maple producers attended.

It’s believed that tapping maple sugar trees began mistakenly when a Native American chief, struck a tree while practicing tomahawk throwing. The industry has grown considerably since then. Last season, the Cornell Sugar House collected more than 70,000 gallons of sap and produced a record 1,500 gallons of maple syrup.

According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, there are more than 1,500 maple producers, who generate more than $8-million in sales, making New York the third largest maple producing state, behind only Vermont and Maine. Farrell believes that there’s still room for growth. “I’ve conducted comprehensive surveys of the maple industry in North New York and the reports show that there’s still great potential to produce even more,” noted Farrell. “I think that I’m being conservative when I say that this could be a $9-million annual industry to the state.”

The Tour opens Sunday evening, Sept. 27, at the North Elba Show Ground when Dr. Timothy Perkins, director of Proctor Maple Research Center at the University of Vermont, discusses the latest research on check-valve adapters, which have the potential to produce between 50 to 90-percent higher sap yields. Landowners interested in learning more about maple syrup production are encouraged to attend the 4-6 p.m. event. There is a $10.00 fee and includes complimentary hors’ doeurves.