Producers share their sweet passion

SMITHVILLE — The maple sugaring season may end up being only average, but that's not slowing producers in showing off their goods.

Burnham's Pure Maple Syrup, 14453 County Route 63, was one of six producers in the region open as part of the first of two Maple Weekend celebrations.

On Sunday morning, Mark E. Burnham described the process to visitors — from tree to bottle. After the tour, guests tasted samples of a range of maple syrup goods.

"I like the cotton candy and sweet mustard," said Tavicque E. Stewart, 9.

Tavicque had seen the process as part of a school trip two years ago, but his older brother, Davi'eel L., 14, a ninth-grader, hadn't.

"Learning about the machine was interesting," Davi'eel said.

Their mother, Helene Stewart-Rainville, decided the short trip from Sackets Harbor would be worth it because the military family could move again.

"We may never get the same opportunity again to see how maple syrup is made," she said. "And I like to support local producers."

Burnham's Syrup owner Harvey J. Burnham said the family has been making syrup for more than 40 years with four generations of family help.

"Now the grandchildren are getting into it," he said.

On Sunday morning, Mark's son, Dustin E., helped feed the fire and show people the evaporator. As it steams, the shack fills with the smell of maple.

Harvey Burnham said his sons pushed for them to build a bigger sugar shack. Now, they have a $6,300 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Agency to improve energy efficiency.

Some of it will cover windows, a door and an overhead door for the sugar shack, Mr. Burnham said. The rest will help pay for a new evaporator pan.

"Now we go through 50 to 80 cords of wood a season," said Daniel L. Burnham, Harvey's son. "The new pan will cut half of the wood usage and it will cut the time for boiling by more than half."

Their evaporator is powered by wood and oil. The current pan can boil up to 200 gallons an hour. The new one could peak at 600 gallons per hour.

It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Daniel Burnham said they usually produce about 500 gallons of syrup per season. They've made about 250 gallons so far this year.

"This season started out really well," he said. "We had quite a bit of light amber syrup."

But with the warm weather, the amount of bacteria in the syrup increased and the sap slowed down. That creates darker syrup, considered a lower grade.

Cooler temperatures in the next week would help.

"It would improve the grade and the speed of sap flow," Mr. Burnham said. "A three- or four-day freeze would be even better."

The Burnhams have participated in both Maple Weekends for 10 years.

"We tend to open every weekend when we have sap," Harvey Burnham said.

The second Maple Weekend celebration, on Saturday and Sunday, will have 14 participants in the three Northern New York counties.

ON THE NET

Maple Weekend:

www.mapleweekend.com