We’ve been selling Mapleland Farms products for years at Impressions and after years for getting invitations to join them for their annual pancake breakfast, I finally got to go! They are a wonderful family run business that is a joy to work with. We have always tried to source as many of the products we sell locally so these products fit right in!
It was a beautiful, sunny and crisp late winter day, perfect for the 30-40 minute ride through the picturesque countryside east of Saratoga to Salem, NY. Mare and Dave decided to take the long way through Gansevoort, Bacon Hill, over the Hudson and ultimately to the Farm in Washington County. The parking area and roadside were packed but we didn’t have to wait too long
to sit.The sap house turned breakfast room was brimming with families! The syrup being served with the yummy pancakes and sausage was coming straight from the big cooking tanks. If you can make it, there is only one more Maple Syrup Weekend Open House next Saturday and Sunday! The breakfast was delicious, huge pancakes, farm raised sausage and syrup – all you can eat!
Brothers Dave and Terry Campbell and their families had a full house! Dave was busy monitoring the syrup as it cooked down while Terry was fielding questions about the process and their farms history. I learned a lot! Mapleland taps over 17,000 maple trees and produces between 7,000 and 8,000 gallons of syrup a year, all in this short sugaring season. This year they started in mid-January and will keep sugaring as long as the weather allows.
I got a very brief education on why the syrups vary in color. The very light color has a higher sugar content and therefore needs less time cooking down. The lower the sugar content, the longer it cooks and because of that it gets darker. Terry informed me that they attempt to get the syrup through the filtration system and into the cooking tanks on the same day since as the syrup sits in storage, it can lose one grade a day! There is a lot more to know but these are the things I found interesting.
They have a large selection of their products to sample and buy if you are so inclined! We carry their syrup, candies and pancake mixes from New Hope Mills, another Made in NY company.
When we left, we drove around around to see the tubing that looks kind of like a huge spiderweb running from tree to tree through the woods and ultimately to collection tanks. We stopped at a friends home where they collect the sap the old time way, in buckets!!! They make their own syrup each year and it is a painstaking but sweetly rewarding project!
This link shows a short video that gives a lot more info if you’re interested.
Thanks Dave and Terry and your entire family for a really fun and delicious morning!
Thanks for sharing our adventure! Mare and Dave Barker
