Couple hosts ceremonial tree tapping

DEKALB JUNCTION — Sap runs in Jeffrey E. Jenness's veins as well as in his maple trees. His father taught him about tapping trees when he was young and he is running his business out of his third sugar shack with his wife, Lori McAdam-Jenness, who also learned from her parents.

The pair held a ceremonial maple tree tapping at Orebed Sugar Shack for community members and local politicians, including state Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine, D-Cape Vincent, state Agricultural Commissioner Patrick M. Hooker and Assemblywoman Dierdre K. Scozzafava, R-Gouverneur.

This is the second time Mr. Jenness has organized the event, though the first time his business, Orebed Sugar Shack, has hosted it. Last year, it was held at the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Canton.

"We're going to move it to the north next year, move it up and around so people get to see other parts of the county," Mr. Jenness said. "We want to highlight the industry; people don't realize how many people are employed, how many families work in this business."

New York is the second-highest maple-producing state in the country, after Vermont. There are about 1,500 producers in the state, according to Mr. Jenness.

"We have more maple trees; we just don't have them tapped," said Helen M. Thomas, director of the state Maple Producers Association.

Orebed Sugar Shack produces 500 to 700 gallons of syrup a year, depending on how well the sap is running.

Sugar "shack," however, is not quite appropriate for the Orebed business. The building is like a house. It has a full bathroom with a shower and a refrigerator and microwave. It also has a second floor, where excess water is stored after it is siphoned through a reverse osmosis machine. That machine removes between 70 percent and 80 percent of the water in the sap, which reduces Mr. Jenness's fuel and electric bills because he does not need to boil the sap as much. Even with the machine, his fuel bill is $200 a day. He pays $20 a day in electric bills.

"I'm green. I'm reducing my carbon footprint," he said. "This stuff is as sweet as Mountain Dew when it comes up."

The so-called shack also has a bright yellow wall covered in pictures of friends and family who help with the tapping; awards and plaques and pictures of former Maple queens and princesses, including one of Mr. Jenness's daughters, Brooke.

Their syrup goes into maple candies, spreads, coffees and even lotions and soaps.

"We started making soap about six years ago," said Laura M. McAdam, Ms. McAdam-Jenness's mother. "I'm a maple producer myself. We decided we needed to add maple to the soap and lotion. It's one of our top sellers now."

Mrs. McAdam runs her business, Family Tree Soap 'n' Stuff, with her twin sister, Loretta M. Ellison, and some help from their granddaughter, Sarah E. Rastley, 10, who contributes milk from her goats for the soaps.

In St. Lawrence County, sap started running early this year. Farmers were out before February ended, tapping their trees and collecting sap, according to Hugh L. Newton, who operates Hugh's Sugar Shack in Potsdam.

However, the recent warm weather has the farmers worried that the season may be too short to keep the sap flowing for long.

"If it warms up too quickly, it's not good," Ms. Thomas said. "If it didn't freeze at night, the trees say, 'Oh, it's spring, we're done.' We've all been glued to the weather. We don't want to believe what they're saying because it's not good."