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Maple Weekend on tap

The snow is melting and the sap is running in the Adirondacks.

To celebrate the sweet flow, a series of maple-syrup-themed events will take place this weekend at The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, the Paul Smith’s VIC, Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington and Mount Van Hoevenberg Cross Country Center in Lake Placid. Attendees can take sugar house tours, see demonstrations and taste a range of maple syrup infused products. Everything happens from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

At the VIC, facility manager Brian McDonnell said his team is getting ready to collect sap. The recent above-freezing temperatures have made the sap start to flow in the property’s maple trees, and the bags and buckets hanging from the taps are slowly beginning to fill with the clear, slightly sweet-tasting liquid.

Standing among the VIC’s 400 tapped sugar maples, McDonnell explains that the operation was designed for educational purposes. That’s why they use both the traditional buckets and the newer, cheaper wine bags to collect sap.

That’s also why VIC sugarers used two different diameters of tubing to fill their collection drums.

McDonnell pointed out two juxtaposed plots of 50 trees each that were set up with the bright blue tubes. One plot had the standard, 5/16-inch diameter tubes while the other had 3/16-inch diameter tubes.

“The idea is to see if we can create more draw with a narrower tubing,” McDonnell said. “A lot of the bigger operations have a vacuum system where they’re literally pulling the sap out of the trees, so they’re getting more production. In a remote section like ours, we don’t have that electricity, nor do we have the vacuum pumps. In doing this, we’re seeing if we can create a natural vacuum.”

The experiment is the capstone project of Paul Smith’s College student Josh Brewer. If it works, the narrower tubing could make it easier and relatively cheap for sugarers to collect more sap and to get it from far-away trees.

Once the sap is collected, it needs to be boiled down to make syrup.

Sap that comes from a sugar maple has a 2- to 5-percent sugar concentration. Syrup has a 67-percent sugar concentration.

McDonnell increased last year’s tapped trees by 100, and said he hopes to increase last year’s 60 gallon yield to 100 gallons. To achieve that, the maple trees will have to produce a lot of sap – conventional knowledge says it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup, but McDonnell said it’s usually more than that.

“It takes at least 200 gallons of sap to do what’s called sweetening the pan, and that’s just boiling, boiling, boiling that first 200 gallons to get the pan to a point where you can pull off your first batch,” McDonnell said. “It’s really more like 50 or 60 gallons of sap per gallon of syrup.”

Other maple producers participating in Maple Weekend are the Cornell University Uihlein Forest, Heaven Hill Farm and the 1812 Homestead.

Maple Weekend will include the Tastes of Maple event from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Lake Placid Conference Center. Maple producers will bring samples of their maple syrup to taste, chefs from throughout the region will bring maple-inspired dishes and local brewers will offer samples.

Attendees can purchase $1 tasting tickets, and each booth will offer tasting portions requiring one to five tickets. A full cash bar will be available.

Skiers can participate in Whiteface Mountain’s family friendly competitions and activities. The Shipman Youth Center will offer maple syrup tastings and samples at Whiteface on Sunday.

At 10 a.m. Sunday, the VIC will host the first-ever Maple Sap Run/Walk. Participants will run or walk out to the sugar bush, fill a quart jug with maple sap, and bring it back to the VIC for processing.

Also Sunday morning, the St. Agnes School in Lake Placid will host a Maple Weekend pancake breakfast.

All weekend long, area businesses will offer maple-themed specials and promotions.

Visit www.lakeplacid.com/events/adirondack-maple-weekend for updated Maple Weekend events and participating businesses. Visit www.mapleweekend.com to learn more about Maple Weekend events and products throughout New York state.

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