By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
A number of maple producers in Cattaraugus and Allegany counties are participating in this year’s New York Maple Weekends that start Saturday.
Mark March 21-22 and 28-29 on your calendar. Most locations are open both weekends from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
It’s the perfect opportunity to see a maple producing facility firsthand and learn more about maple sugarmaking.
Besides the opportunity to see how maple syrup is made by boiling it down from maple sap collected from area maple trees, take the time to smell the boiling sap and to taste the finished product.
Many participating producers also have pancake breakfasts.
There are literally hundreds of participating maple producers across New York state. There are nearly a dozen within 50 miles of Olean.
Below are some participating Maple Weekend producers in Cattaraugus and Allegany counties. Many other maple producers are open while the sap is running too.
- Sprague’s Maple Farms, 1048 Portville-Obi Road, Portville. Weather permitting, see live tree tapping demonstrations, wagon rides and a sugarhouse.
- Moore’s Maple Shack & Pancake House, 10444 Galen Hill Road, Freedom. An All You Can Eat Pancake Breakfast and tours of . the maple processing facility.
- Durow Farms Maple Products, 11350 Archer Hill Road, Randolph. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. Sugar house and sap building tours. Hay ride to sap building-weather permitting.Pancake breakfast 10 a.m. to noon.
- Ulinger’s Maple Farm LLC, 8835 Crumb Hill Road, East Otto. Come watch us boil some pure maple syrup! We will give tours of the Sugarhouse and Sugarbush. We will be sampling a lot of our maple products! Maple Candy, Maple Cream, Maple Caramel Popcorn, Maple Fluff to name a few.
- Wright Farms, 9166 Laidlaw Road, Franklinville. The Wright Farm began making maple syrup 185 years ago. They tap 8,000 trees and use a 6×16-foot wood-fired evaporator, steam-away and reverse osmosis. They will be serving jack wax (sugar on snow) throughout the day.
Allegany County participating maple producers include:
- Campbell Maple, 8904 Jackson Hill Road, Friendship. The Campbell family has been boiling maple sap since 1822. They make syrup, bottle syrup, make maple cream, maple candy and maple granulated sugar. Weather permitting, we will offer jack wax (syrup on snow). Three generations of Campbells will be demonstrating production of the various maple products and offering samples of products.
- CTK Farms LLC, 6117 New Mexico Road, Cuba. They’ll have samples of all our maple products – including our new Bourbon-Barrel aged maple syrup. Learn the whole process from tree to table. If mother nature cooperates, we’ll be making syrup and you’ll get that delicious smell of boiling sap. Finish your visit with one of our maple/cider doughnuts freshly made!
- Hint’s Red Roof Maple, 3545 State Route 275, Friendship. Tour their sugarhouse, see their vacuum and reverse osmosis systems and wood-fired evaporator.
- Mountain Maple Syrup, 6621 New Mexico Road, Cuba. There will be tours of their maple production facility including demonstrations on the process of making maple syrup. They’ll have, free maple syrup samples, and more! There will be maple syrup, maple sugar, maple sugar pieces, maple spread and other merchandise for sale.
