Visit Maple Weekend Sugar House
It was our first visit to a Sugar House, and to be honest, we didn’t know what to expect. One thing for sure, a lot of time, energy and effort goes into making one of the most wonderfully natural food products available.
This past weekend, we met the folks at Mud Road Sugar House in Ephratah, NY, who have been making maple syrup for over 30 years. This family business has grown and improved over the years with upgrades to the process including more efficient evaporators, reverse osmosis systems, improved filtering equipment, and more efficient sap collection and storage.
The traditional image of collecting sap from maple trees uses metal buckets that hang on the sides of the trees. Stepping back in time, wagons pulled by horses used to transport the sap to the sugar house. Once there, boiling off the water in the sap was an around the clock operation in order to produce the syrup.
Modern improvements today offer the ability to collect larger quantities of sap, faster boiling times, and increased production. Mud Road Sugar House has been through the evolution of maple syrup production and continues to improve their processes. Their focus is on quality syrup, available in a variety of grades, yielding an exceptional maple syrup and maple syrup products.
We really enjoyed the tour of the sugar house, listened intently as the process was explained and we sampled freshly produced maple syrup on pancakes, as well as specialty products like maple mustard, and maple syrup that has been stored in oak whiskey barrels for a wonderfully unique flavor.
Visiting an operating sugar house during New York State’s Annual Maple Weekend is just another reason why we love living in the Mohawk Valley. We recommend going out to see the process for yourself during the upcoming Maple Weekend. We think you will enjoy visiting any one of these wonderful locations while they’re producing the local maple syrup we all love.
Here are the maple producers participating in NYS Maple Weekend in the Mohawk Valley:
Two Saps Syrup and
Be sure to visit a Maple Weekend Sugar House events happening at locations throughout the Mohawk Valley during NYS Maple Weekends!
You may also like Is it too soon to make Maple Syrup?, and How to identify maple trees to make your own maple syrup.
Bee demonstrations by Sleepy Bear Apiary at the Mohawk Valley Garlic Festival • Photo by Sarah Rogers
