Thurman Maple Syrup Weekends

Cold nights and warm days make for some terrific maple syrup making. Depending on the weather in any particular year this could mean a relatively long producing season of several weeks to only one week (… or less!).

Each year the Town of Thurman shows it’s hospitality to visitors by sharing their maple syrup producing tradition. For several weekends during March there are free tours of Thurman sugarhouses, plus more!

The year we attended there were three separate weekends of activities. But check our events calendar for exact dates and activities each year because things could change.

The first weekend includes hosting the annual “Maple Sugar Party”. This event is a fund raiser for the American Cancer Society. This has been a tradition since the community held a "jack wax party" to raise funds to help a young Thurman resident with leukemia over 50 years ago.

The maple sugar party is an all-you-can eat buffet ending with authentic jack wax for dessert. Residents help by sharing their home-made gems from their kitchens. Local musicians also perform.

For those not familiar with jack wax, it is a scrumptious treat made from clean packed snow and heated maple syrup. If heated properly the syrup will turn to taffy when you slowly pour it over the snow in a back-and-forth motion. You’ll love it!

Each weekend is packed with several fun tours. When we attended the day started out with breakfast at Valley Road Maple Farm. Pancakes with sausage and smothered with pure local maple syrup. (… Mmmm!)

Again check out our events calendar for specifics each year. But for us after breakfast it was on to four different tours. Three of tours were to maple syrup producing farms. The other tour was of a tree/lumber farm with demonstrations of their sawmill operation.

At the maple syrup producing farms you'll see high-tech evaporators (… using reverse osmosis and SteamAways!) as well as long-established wood-fired evaporators used long ago.

What technology is done for the maple syrup industry is astounding! It takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. That has remained unchanged. It used to take many days of hard manual work to tap, gather, boil, and process the sap just to make a relatively few number of gallons. Now with technological advances, although the work and hours are still arduous (… and costly), It’s not as hard as it was in days past, and the gallons produced are exponential!

Valley Road Maple Farm:

Our first tour was at the Valley Road Maple Farm (... actually this was the farm that served breakfast). Maple syrup makers demonstrated processing of the sap in their new state of the art sugarhouse. They have 1,500 taps to gather the sap and they use a system with a vacuum and a reverse osmosis procedure.

We learned that the vacuum is not to get more sap from the trees but rather to keep the sap moving through the long tubing used to move the sap from the trees to where it is processed. The reverse osmosis procedure takes 75% of the water from the sap saving time and energy costs involved in boiling the excess water from the sap.

Their products include syrup, candy, cream, granulated maple sugar, maple roasted peanuts and maple cotton candy. (… this was the best cotton candy our family has ever tasted, with a sweet maple flavor). The Valley Road Maple Farm won the Vermont international maple syrup contest for light amber syrup, and won the 2008 and 2009 New York State Fair, first prize for maple candy.

Martin’s Lumber:

Our next tour was Martin’s lumber. The Martins have a 100 acre certified tree farm with a portable band saw mill. They carefully manage their woodland resources and will talk to you about silviculture (… the principles of sustainable forestry).

The demonstration included maple logs that show the distinctive and fine-looking grains of the sugar maple. Some of the initial cuts show signs of tapping in bygone days. They also actually demonstrate sawing the massive logs into boards.

We love Adirondack rustic furniture. The part we liked the best was some of the initial cuts of the logs. What some would consider as waste or scrap others would see as a potential gold mine in material to use for Adirondack rustic furniture, accessories, and crafts.

These initial cuts give way to some of the most unique pieces of lumber that are just waiting to be crafted into rare, one-of-a-kind pieces of Adirondack décor (… and the price is right for these pieces!).

We will definitely be back to pick up some unique pieces of wood for that rustic Adirondack bench we want to make for our deck!

The Martins use every bit of the trees they cut for something. Nothing goes to waste. Even the saw dust is used for bedding for horses and other animals.

The Martins philosophy is to not only look at what can be harvested today, but to also plan and strive to make sure abundant thriving woodlands are there for future generations. And they’ve proven it. Their ancestors came to the Adirondacks in the end of 1700s and logging/milling has been in their family ever since.

Toad Hill Maple Farm:

Our next tour was to Toad Hill Maple Farm. This place is amazing! They have a brand new energy-efficient sugarhouse. I’m not sure how many square feet it is but it’s four times the size of their old one.

It was just finished a couple weeks before the maple syrup producing began in 2011. They used wood from trees cut down on their own property and sent to the mill for processing. it’s huge! (… and it’s beautifully built!)

The family has produced pure Adirondack Maple Products for more than 30 years. Toad Hill is the largest maple producer in Warren County, NY. They have over 4,000 vacuum-assisted taps which are spread across three sugar bushes.

There is a guided tour of their facilities. They have all the latest and greatest equipment and technology including the reverse osmosis process (… takes 75% of the water from the sap before boiling). They explain and demonstrate the process from beginning to end.

They have a huge kitchen in the new building for preparing other maple products such as maple cotton candy, maple cream, granulated maple sugar, maple mustard dip, and maple candy. They have free samples.

But I warn you! If you try the samples you will definitely be stopping by the gift shop to buy some to take home before leaving the building (… I’m not a big candy eater but their candy was unbelievably delicious!).

Adirondack Gold Maple Farm:

Our last tour was of the Adirondack Gold Maple Farm. This was a great tour in that it was a smaller operation with a more old fashioned sugarhouse to boil down the sap.

They have 700 taps (...600 with tubing and 100 with just buckets). Although they did have some new equipment/technology, it provided a better feeling of what it was like to produce maple syrup in the olden days.

The tour guide, the owner and third generation of maple producers, was great at explaining the process and great with the kids. He liked to tell Adirondack stories of long ago which added to the experience. He actually had some children (… which he affectionately referred to as his free labor!) bring a couple of buckets of sap in and added them to his 2' x 6' wood-fired stainless steel evaporator.

At the Adirondack Gold Maple Farm they also have another building where they have free samples and sell a full line of maple products (… syrup, maple cream, candies, etc.) and gifts. When we were there they also had hot dogs, chili, hot coffee, hot cocoa, and other items for lunch.

What a day!

We really enjoyed the day! It was great to get out in the fresh Adirondack air. The beautiful scenery Thurman has to offer is awesome. We learned a lot about the maple industry and the lumber milling. The people, including the tour guides were very friendly and hospitable.

We definitely recommend that you and your family attend one of Thurman’s Maple Weekends. You’ll love it!

If you are looking for weekend accommodations, check out these places to stay!