SUGARIN' IN THE WOODS

It's that time of year when the days are warm and the nights are cold and the sap starts to run. This has been a decent season for sugari' around here. At least that's what our man says.


Dylan and Dawson and I took the time to visit with one of our local sugar makers, Walter Blank, whose been making maple syrup now for some time. He’s located a few miles behind our farm’s vineyard. He makes Grade A Light Amber and our Rustic Dark.


His property is filled with so many lines the surrounding trees are wound up in a cat’s cradle of lines and feeder lines.


Walter has a continuous feeding boiler system. He’s very conscientious, as our grade A Light Amber is boiled at just the right length and temperature, and then twice filtered. It‘s 100% natural, and delicious.


And the stove is wood fired. The combination of boiling, steaming sap, and fresh burnt wood was intoxicating, and exciting.

Walter is a member of the North Eastern New York Sugarmaker’s Association, and his large sugar shack is an old converted horse barn. At one point Walter was a highly acclaimed quarter horse show jumper.

The boys loved the wood burning stove, the endless number of lines, and were most curious of Walter’s pond, stocked with innumerable bass, which he promised the boys they would be able to fish (boy will he be sorry, come summer).