Pure Maple Syrup
In late February or early March, we begin tapping our maple trees and boiling sap into maple syrup on our wood-fired evaporator. We are a small operation with around 600 taps on a gravity-fed collection system.
Roughly 3.4 million gallons of maple syrup are produced in the US each year, 74% of which comes solely from the sugarbushes of Vermont, New York, and Maine. These sugarbushes (forests utilized for syrup production) aren’t just vital for our breakfast table – they provide essential habitat for some of our most threatened songbirds.
As part of the Healthy Forests initiative, Audubon New York is partnering with maple producers to return sugarbushes to a more natural state. The shift will benefit nesting songbirds, including Scarlet Tanagers, Wood Thrushes, Black-throated Blue Warblers, and Veeries—and support local businesses!
Though our sugaring season may only last from late February or early March until early April, we work almost year-round sustainably managing our sugarbush, maintaining our sap lines, removing invasive plants, and harvesting firewood for the next sugaring season. A lot of our work is focused on enhancing the diversity and complexity of our sugarbush to regenerate new generations of trees, support biodiversity, and make the forest more resilient in the face of climate change, introduced tree pathogens, and other threats of our modern world. We are recognized for this work by Audubon NY as a bird-friendly maple producer.