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It's not too late to attend the New York Maple Tour

| August 2017

The Lewis County Maple Producer Association will be hosting the 2017 New York State Maple tour. The tour is scheduled for August 13th, 14th, and 15th. 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 will also include a stop at Shultz’s cheese curd, one of the area’s leading producers of cheese curd. The tour will include a trade show and banquet at the Ridgeview lodge in Lowville, NY. Participants will be bused to each stop. [ MORE ]

Don’t miss the 2017 Vermont Maplerama

Sloan Bullard | July 20, 2017

Vermont Maplerama, the summer tour that features the showplace sugarhouses of Vermont is slated for Aug. 3-5. This year’s event is hosted by the Lamoille County Sugarmakers and will take place at the VFW in Hyde Park, Vt. The event includes tours, a trade show, banquet and awards ceremony, and a Saturday BBQ. [ MORE ]

Program offers easy money to sugarmakers

Peter Gregg | May 2017

Nothing beats free money.
An energy savings incentive program in Vermont largely paid for new flue pan preheaters for 18 oil-burning sugarmakers last year, with even more money slated for 2017. Applications are now being accepted in Vermont for up to $7,500 in grants for preheaters.
“I’ve never done a grant program that was so easy,” said Mark Stewart, who along with sons Elliot and Tanner, taps 25,000 in the central Vermont hamlet of Cuttingsville. “It was very easy.” [ MORE ]

Season wrapping up for most, but far north hangs on

Peter Gregg | April 8, 2017

The last gasp of the season for most this weekend.
“The lower elevation trees are on the way out,” said Dale Aines, of 20,000-tap Mettowee Valley Maple in Pawlet, Vt. on Tuesday. [ MORE ]

New VMSMA container timeline finalized

| March 31, 2017

Coming June 1st! New plastic containers from the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association featuring revised branding will be available on June 1 from Hillside Plastics Co.’s Sugarhill Containers.

“With the 2017 season underway, we’re excited to finally be able to announce a timeline for the roll-out of VMSMA’s new plastic and glass containers featuring the revised Vermont Maple Syrup branding,” the association said. [ MORE ]

Shout-out to the Sugar Women

Kate Ziehm | March 27, 2017

The maple industry, like most of agriculture, sometimes has the perception to be a male dominated industry—or at least that is the way it appears. But we know about appearances … don’t we?

I want to give a shout-out to my “Sugar-Women.” [ MORE ]

Season winding down in the middle latitudes

Peter Gregg | March 2017

It could be close to the end for sugarmakers in the middle latitudes of the Maple Belt.

“My last boil was Thursday,” Wayne Palmer, a sugarmaker in Hebron, Ct. told The Maple News on March 24. “The last two days we were getting that not so nice smell in the sugarhouse, when you stop getting that nice vanilla smell and it changes.” [ MORE ]

Flatlander hitting heights

Peter Gregg | February 2017

They call him the hardest working flatlander in Vermont.

Eric Sorkin is a lawyer by training and hails from New Jersey, but he’s becoming one of the kingpins of the Vermont maple industry, with 81,000 taps on the back side of Mt. Mansfield and an innovative retail business that’s taking maple into a new culinary realm, far beyond the jugs and tin.

“We’re shouting from the rooftops that you can do a lot more with this stuff,” he said. “It’s so unique. It’s so special.” [ MORE ]