LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 39 FOREST SWEETS T H E G I F T O F M A P L E "I love the versatility of real maple syrup. Our local maple syrups can be used in a variety of ways during any mealtime and even in our cocktails. I use local maple syrup in our "Adirondack Buck" cocktail, a terroir-infused version of a classic Gin Buck. e maple syrup replaces simple syrup beautifully and provides that much- sought-aer local element." Early spring in the Adirondacks is magical, a time of eager anticipation, promise, and renewal. Winters are long and cold, and although locals and visitors enjoy time on skis and snowshoes, by April everyone is ready for a change. Nights remain chilly and the smell of wood-fired stoves is still prevalent. Locals are accustomed to an extra blanket for sleeping and wearing heavy sweaters around the house during the day. Sunrise comes a bit earlier now as the days become longer, and the warm morning sunshine that comes to life over the cap of the High Peaks is invigorating. Sneaking into the picture of our mountain towns is the sweet smell of sap boiling in sugar shacks tucked away in the woods. e sap has been flowing freely for the past week or so as maple trees release their stored-up moisture from a long winter of below zero weather and waist-deep snow. Committed sugar artisans have been hard at work controlling the accumulation of sap either by hand-carried buckets attached to individual trees or through more sophisticated lines that serve as a sap highway from groves of hundreds, if not thousands, of trees in a sugar forest network. It can take as much as forty gallons of sap to produce one gallon of maple syrup unless, as some larger producers do, it is incorporated into a reverse-osmosis system that extracts much of the water prior to the boiling process. In this case, the ratio can be less than twenty gallons of sap to a gallon of syrup. In all instances, it is a physical, mental, and emotional commitment that makes for a productive sugaring season. Tree sap contains around 2-3% sugar, and through the application of heat (traditionally a wood fire under an evaporation pan) the sap will condense to an amber- to deep-brown-colored syrup with a sugar content of more than 66%. Many Adirondack producers believe that using a wood fire versus an oil burner also affects the flavor of the rich liquid. It is this combination of the smell of a wood fire and the sweetness of the sap that makes the season so intoxicating. In the summer and fall, syrup producers are busy in the woods preparing their trees for the work ahead. "We do a lot of woods work: logging and thinning new sections of sugar bush, running tubing, felling trees and collecting firewood, building roads for access to new areas, etc." -Randy and Jill Galusha – Toad Hill Maple Farm Athol, New York | www.toadhillmaple.com From mid-February on, syrup producers are out in the woods tapping trees or fixing lines that have been chewed by squirrels or deer, trudging through knee-deep snow and fighting off the By Paul Sorgule

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