MAPLE NEWS

New York State is the third largest producer of maple syrup in the world and the individual producers are celebrating that fact at this year’s 14th Annual Maple Weekend™.

This year the event will take place over two weekends March 20-21, 2010 & March 27-28, 2010 from 10am - 4pm each day. One hundred ten of the finest maple producers throughout New York State, from Buffalo to Albany, Rochester to Binghamton and Jamestown to Plattsburgh, will open their sugarhouses to demonstrate the making of maple products "from the tree to your table." Almost 50 maple producers throughout Western New York will participate.

The all-natural, golden brown syrup goes with everything from pancakes to peanuts. And the quality of New York State maple syrup is not only the best in its history; it’s probably the best in the world.

The easiest and most enjoyable way to verify it for yourself is on Maple Weekend™! This free, family-oriented event gives you a chance to see how New York maple producers make some of the world's finest syrup and related products.

On Maple Weekend™, visitors can see all aspects of maple making, from the tapping of the trees to get the sap, to the boiling of the sap into syrup. Some producers will also demonstrate the making of maple syrup into other products including maple cream, maple cotton candy and maple sugar. Most sugarhouses will allow people to sample the products.

Techniques of maple production vary from producer to producer. Some are state-of-the-art and some use traditional methods, so the public everyone is encouraged to visit several of the participating farms. In addition, many of the producers will have a variety of additional activities including horse and wagon rides, snowshoeing, guided walks in the woods and kids' corners.

In conjunction with Maple Weekend™ many all-you-can-eat pancake breakfasts featuring New York's finest maple syrup will help people satisfy their hunger and continue to promote syrup and other maple products. A list of some the participating pancake breakfasts is available on the “Locations” page

New York State maple syrup has established its reputation as some of highest quality in the world. New York Maple producers continually strive to do a better job of telling people about it and that is what Maple Weekend™ is all about.

According to the New York State Agriculture Statistics Service, New York is the third largest maple syrup producer in the world (behind Canada and Vermont). Last year, the estimated 1,500 maple producers across New York made 332,000 gallons of syrup in accounting for almost 20% of the maple syrup made in the United States. Each of the estimated 1.48 million taps in the state produced an average of 0.218 gallons of syrup.

Maple Weekend™ started as Maple Sunday twelve years ago as a handful of maple producers in Wyoming County organized a one-day event to promote maple products. The event became so successful and grew so quickly that it now includes producers throughout New York State.

“We just wanted another way to market our syrup. We never dreamed it would grow to this size,” said Greg Zimpfer of Attica, one of the founders of Maple Sunday. “But we’re thrilled that people across New York State are being turned onto maple syrup.”

So mark your calendars for March 21-22 and 28-29, 2009 and take the family to experience New York State maple!

Maple Weekend™ has plenty of activities for children

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