Maple Weekend Festivities

This coming weekend is the second installment of festivities across New York State celebrating maple syrup. Sugarhouses and nature centers statewide open their doors and give the public a glimpse of the production process and a taste of the sweet stuff. Sapsquatch will be open to the public from 11am Saturday, March 23 – 5pm Sunday March 24 for non-stop boiling, a dish-to-pass along with cocktails, musical debut by The Gripes an d their musical guests. Come keep the sugarmakers company, pick up a jar of syrup or your csa share, try some pancakes and hopefully do some sledding.

Sapsquatch will also be appearing at the Cayuga Nature Center for their annual MapleFest from 10am-4pm both days.

prune. drink. repeat.

Reblogged from Redbyrd Orchard Cider:

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Pruning is my favorite orchard chore.  It is truly art, sculpting of the tree. To promote fruitful wood, renew old branches, shape the tree for good sunlight and airflow.  Apples and leaves will surround these trees this summer but for now they are mere skeletons.  The air is crisp and the cider, fresh and cold.

Reminds me of maple sugaring. Actually met Erick over a decade ago when I was hitchhiking over in Starkey.

Update for March 2013

It has been an incredible week and I have been very busy down at the sugarshack. I was not sure I would even have time to knock off this quick update, but there are some really important events coming up that you should know about.
Several important dates are coming up as New York’s Maple Weekend approaches. Sapsquatch will be open to the public on March 16-17 and 23-24 from 11am-5pm all four days https://www.facebook.com/events/494320303961991/ and on both Saturday nights will be alive with boiling and festivities at the sugarshack. Please pay us a visit at 2247 Mecklenburg Rd./Rt. 79 in Enfield, pick up some syrup, try some pancakes, hike in the woods or do some sledding. We will also be selling our syrup at Cayuga Nature Center’s annual Maple Fest http://cayuganaturecenter.org/
If you are thinking about joining our CSA, you can pick up you shares at either of these locations. Here’s how it works. For $80, you receive a gallon or 4 quarts of your favorite grade of syrup. Quarts can be mixed and matched and by purchasing your CSA, we reserve the grades that you want. This is key if you want to get your hands on our extremely popular Grade B syrup. As a CSA member, you can schedule a free guided tour of the sugarbush for your whole family, have a private syrup tasting with pancakes and receive regular updates about events and happenings at the sugarbush and beyond. We will ship or repack your share into your choice of containers for an additional $20. Payment plans available. Contact Josh at sapsquatch7@gmail.com for details and to reserve your share.
This week, in addition to getting ready for what could be the biggest run of the season, I have been working with a wonderful group of students from Kurt Hahn Outward Bound High School from Brooklyn. This Wednesday they spent a few hours out at the sugarbush helping with a few key projects and helped move two black locust logs which have been waiting for over a year for a crew big enough to pick them up (they were really heavy!) We carried these logs and placed them across Sapsquatch Creek and they will serve as trusses for a brand new bridge. Thursday we visited Good Life Farm http://thegoodlifefarm.org/ did some spring planting in high tunnels, pulled drip tape from a vegetable patch to prepare for plowing and spent time learning about and watching their draft horses in action. A lot of firsts on this trip from sledding to petting goats and I have been honored to be a part of their trip. I will be looking forward to the documentary that a few of the students are working on about this trip.
Speaking of videos, check out ‘I am a Sugarmaker’, a short film I produced during a workshop in NYC last month sponsored by the Center for Digital Storytelling: https://vimeo.com/60576866
As always, check us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sapsquatch-pure-maple-syrup/41901318258?fref=ts on twitter @sapsquatch7 and check our blog at http://www.sapsquatchsyrup.wordpress.com You can also reach josh by phone at (607) 280-8498.

I am a sugarmaker

You have no idea what that fish you're eating is, so don't pretend

Reblogged from Grist:

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"Man, Europe," we think, shaking our heads with superiority. "Those weirdos are eating horse instead of beef. What a mixed-up, topsy-turvy continent." Shrugging, we then pick up our fish sandwiches from McDonald's or, if you're fancy, throw a little snapper on the grill.

And that's when the Fates play their little tricks. From The New York Times:

That tempting seafood delight glistening on the ice at the market, or sizzling at the restaurant table in its aromatic jacket of garlic and ginger?

Read more… 465 more words

Notice that all the towns with the least fish fraud are also fishing towns Seattle, Portland and Boston

Another early season maple sugaring & climate uncertainty

On a day when thousands are converging on DC for what is being billed as the largest climate rally ever, I take stock of the very real and very personal effects of climate change on my life.  As I walked the sugarbush and began tapping on January 10th, I had to shake my head.  After last year’s extremely early maple sugaring season, I knew that I would need to be prepared for another early season, but this was blowing my mind.

2012 was a year of extreme weather, and the balmy winter was just the opening act.  Our first boil was on Groundhog Day, almost a month earlier than ever before.  Many sugarmakers waited to see how things would turn out, but their hopes were dashed on March 17th when an unseasonable heat wave ended the season abruptly, causing the sap flow to stop and forcing most commercial tree crops to bloom way to early.  Many sugarmakers reported 50% lower yields, but orchardists were devastated when the early blooms were killed by frost, hail and late snow all in succession.

Then came the mega-drought.  Almost the entire country suffered from a lack of rain and the effects are still being felt from the lower-than-ever Great Lakes to the almost impassable Mississippi River; drawing comparisons to the Dust Bowl.   Just by coincidence, 2012 also happened to be the centennial of the Dust Bowl Troubedore, Woody Guthrie.  Then came Super-Storm Sandy, an undeniable wake up call to the harsh realities of climate change and a signal that greater calamities lie ahead.

The cold and snow of 2013 have so far presented a ‘good winter’ that us Northeasterners now look on with some level of nostalgia.  Winter Storm Nemo (when did we start naming snow storms, anyway) at first glance was just a good ole’ Noreaster, but in reality was another pumped up weather event reminding us that our modern civilization is actually much more vulnerable than we could have imagined only two short years ago.  And so, on into another early maple season that has some sugarmakers wondering if the days of our beloved golden delicious maple sugaring days are numbered.

While I have your ear, a few updates. We will be boiling regularly between now and the end of the season, and I like to post on Facebook when we are out at the shack.  Friends and newcomers are always welcome.  Below is a rundown of upcoming events you should know about:

CSA sales on sale now – For the past few years, Sapsquatch has been growing our business, and our CSA is a way to help us out at the beginning of the season and reserve your gallon.  For $80, you get 1 gallon of your favorite grade in a gallon jug or 4 quarts.  For an additional $20 we can ship OR put your gallon and a grade sampler in container sizes of your choosing (for pick up only).  Place your order via email at sapquatch7@gmail.com or by phone at (607)280-8498.

Enfield Sugarmakers Club – This year we are teaming up with Enfield’s afterschool for an 8 week maple sugar program.  Every Thursday starting February 7^th, middle school kids will learn the ropes, tap trees, sled wood and sap to the sugarshack and see a boil in progress.  At the end of the season, they will also learn to identify native plants as they emerge from the freshly thawed soil.  New Roots Farm-to-School club and GIAC Conservation Corps are also tentatively scheduled for regular programming at the sugarbush.

Brooklyn High School Service Learning trip – on March 6^th, 15-16 high-schoolers from Brooklyn will visit the sugarbush, help get the fire started, try their hand at chopping wood, and begin construction on a new bridge over Sapsquatch Creek.  The will also visit several area farms, universities and other educational attractions over course of the week.  You can support their trip here http://kurthahn.peaksoverpoverty.org/?campaign=979

NY Maple Weekends – Sapsquatch will host an open house on the last two weekends of March, 23-24 and 30-31 from 12pm-5pm.  Swing by and pick up your syrup, see the evaporator in action (depending on the weather) and take a walk in our 25 acre sugarbush.  Check Facebook for evening activities https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sapsquatch-pure-maple-syrup/41901318258?fref=ts

Please contact Josh for more info or to schedule a private tour (free for CSA member’s, $10/group) at sapsquatch7@gmail.com

Fell, cut, haul, chop stack… repeat

Fall is my favorite time of year out on the farm, other than the very beginning of maple season.  I get to spend long golden days out in the sugarbush cutting wood ready for the big boils of late winter and early spring.  With our wood fired evaporator, we use a lot of firewood; up to 5 or six full cords over the course of a season, so we need to spend a significant amount of time and energy making sure our wood is just right.

My first season ended abruptly when my second rate wood pile was exhausted, prompting me to dump the remaining sap in my tank.  As the 2012 runs were winding down, we almost ran out of fuel and had to resort to scavenging forgotten and passed over logs in the areas near the shack. I don’t to be in that situation EVER AGAIN!   And so now I am spending at least one 5-hour chunk every week felling trees, each one selected for firewood based on certain criteria.  I’ve been clearing a trail into a new section of sugarbush, felling overcrowded trees with too much lean, rotten branches, and ones that are crowding big producers.  I have come to know these woods like I know the layout of my home; where the wet spots are, which areas need more thinning, where the deer like to rub, where the dog likes to do his business.

I cut logs in to movable chunks, carrying them to collection points then loading them into the truck, hauling loads down to the wood processing area just outside the sugarshack to cut again in some cases or chop, then one final haul to the growing stacks looming over the evaporator where the wood can cure and be as dry as possible when the season rolls in next year.  I know the trees I have cut and sometimes have a memory as we are loading logs into the fire.  All the logs that I have cut pass before me again and again; maple, cherry, ash, hornbeam, basswood, polar, pine, birch, oak.  Fell, cut, haul, chop, stack … repeat.  If boiling is the final goal, then woodcutting is the daily practice.