The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
MAPLE WEEKEND COMES TO A CLOSE
Tree tapping: NYS Ag Commissioner to hold ceremony at 11 a.m.
Today marks the fourth and final day of Maple Weekend 2017 at the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill School District, and in addition to the production tours and hearty breakfast, officials will also tap the 2017 Maple Tree to kick-offthemaple season.
As a special program of MapleWeekend, New York Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets Richard Ball will attend an official New York Maple Weekend Syrup Season Ceremony at the VVS High School. Ball will be joined by Oneida CountyMaple Royalty and tap the “2017 Maple Tree” at 11 a.m. on the VVS High School lawn.
Following the tree tapping, an official proclamation from New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be read recognizing the significance of the maple industry and supporting statewide efforts to promote puremaple products. Other local and state dignitaries are expected to be on hand in support of the event.
As part of the weekend’s festivities, the VVS FFA will sponsor a Pancake Breakfast Buffet all four weekend days and sponsor several maple demonstrations.
On Sunday, breakfasts
will be served from 7:30 a.m. until noon and include a menu of gourmet pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, toast, coffee and juice beverages and of course pure maple syrup produced by the VVS FFA. Prices for the all-you-can-eat break- fast are $8 for adults, $6 for senior citizens, and children and pre-schoolers are free. Beginning at 9 a.m., half-hour guided tours of the VVS Agriculture Department’s Maple Syrup Laboratory will be conducted. The school’s facility includes a sap filtration system, sap preheater, reverse osmosis machine, set-up for a 6,000-tap maple operation with wood- chip fed evaporator, which burns renewable willow as a heat source. The willow is grown by the VVS Agriculture Department. Tour participants will view the process of processing ma- ple sap into maple syrup. Included is a free half an hour wagon ride and tour fromthe pancake breakfast to the school’s maple sugarbush and maple processing laboratory.