Ready to run
Maple producers anxious for new season
FORT ANN, N.Y. >> Greg Lapan’s new sugarhouse gives visitors a glimpse of the maple industry’s past, present and future.
Sap from 1,300 taps is collected with a modern tubing system and boiled down into syrup on a gleaming new wood-fired evaporator. But walls are lined with colorful antique syrup containers, and a display of old metal and wooden buckets that show how maple was made in years gone by.
Lapan’s Battlehill Maple is one of many area sites scheduled to welcome guests when the Upper Hudson Maple Producers Association hosts Open House Weekends on March 2324 and March 30-31.
For those who can’t wait, a handful of producers in Thurman, Warren County, will host similar activities on March 16- 17 as well.
The highlight is a communitywide buffet dinner called Thurman Maple Sugar Party from 4- 9 p.m. on Saturday, March 16 at Thurman Town Hall, 311 Athol Rd. The event features jack wax dessert, traditionally called “sugar on snow” and live musical entertainment.
“Last year was our second year holding an open house and our numbers doubled from the first year,” Lapan said. “We were very pleased with that. We try to educate people because everybody’s operation is different.
Many producers use reverse osmosis technology to extract much of sap’s water content, which saves fuel and money by reducing the boiling time. But Lapan said there’s debate within the industry, as some people feel reverse osmosis affects syrup’s flavor quality.
The maple industry hit a 74year record last year with the production of 806,000 gallons of
syrup, an increase of nearly 50 percent in the last five years, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. New York’s maple production constituted about 19 percent of the national total.
The number of taps also continues to climb, with more than 2.73 million in production in 2018, the highest number since 1943.
Lapan learned the skill from his late grandfather, Richard, and father, Paul, who still helps with the sap collection process. But he got away from the business after graduating from college, before getting back into it a few years ago with his fiance, Janet Oliver ,a nurse practitioner at Cambridge Family Practice in Washington County.
“I’d never made maple until I met Greg,” she said. “When
we got together I said that ought to be fun. He can teach me because I didn’t know anything about it. A lot of people don’t realize how much work is involved with making syrup.”
Last year, Lapan burned 20 cords of wood to keep the evaporator going during maple season. A shed adjoining the sugarhouse is filled to the top with wood he’s cut and split in preparation for this year’s production.
Battlehill Maple is located on the family’s former dairy farm on Washington County Route 16, which runs through a pristine valley west of state Route 4 in Fort Ann.
Sap hasn’t started running hard yet because it’s simply been too cold. But that could change soon as Saturday’s forecast is nearly perfect with temperatures in the high 30s and full sun.
“You’re dealing with such a narrow window, relying on Mother Nature, because of the temperatures,” Lapan said. “With other crops you’ve got a lot more flexibility. With maple, you’ve got to have that perfect window. High 30s to low 40s during the day with sun; mid-20s at night. Those are ideal conditions.”