The Lewis County Maple Producer Association will be hosting the 2017 New York State Maple tour.  The tour is scheduled for August 13th, 14th, and 15th.  Attendees from across the Empire State will have the opportunity to visit local maple syrup producers, examine their facilities, and engage fellow producers.  The tour will also include a stop at Shultz’s cheese curd, one of the area’s leading producers of cheese curd.  The tour will include a trade show and banquet at the Ridgeview lodge in Lowville, NY.  Participants will be bused to each stop. 

A brief summary on currently scheduled stops is listed below.  More detailed information and write-ups on additional sites will be forthcoming. Information on pricing will be available soon and updates will be issued as needed. Registration materials will be available at both cornellmaple.com and nysmaple.com.  

Any inquiries about the tour may be directed to:  Jake Mosher 315-486-7933 or Shawn Massey 315-783-5586

Tour Stops

Kraeger’s Maple Syrup

Kraeger’s Maple Syrup, owned by Michael and Lisa Kraeger, has been in business since 1923 and features 6500 taps.  This operations is mostly on vacuum tubing but also features 1500 buckets.  Sap is concentrated with an RO and steam-away then boiled on a wood fired 5 x 14 Leader Vortex evaporator with a bubbler. Syrup is sold retail and wholesale and they participate in Maple Weekend. 

Massey Ranch

 Massey Ranch, owned by Shawn and Meghan Massey, has been in business 8 years and features 1100 taps.  The sugarbush has 700 taps on vacuum and 400 buckets.  Sap is processed through a pre-heater and wood fired 2 x 8 evaporator.  Products for sale include maple syrup, granulated maple sugar, maple cream, maple sugar shapes and maple cotton candy.  They also do tours and participate in maple weekend.

Farm House Maple

Farm House Maple, owned by Tom and Marsha Maxon, has been in business 3 years and features 2000 taps all on vacuum. Sap is process using an RO and boiled in a 3 x 10 evaporator that is fired with wood pellets.  A wide variety of maple products are sold. They participate in maple weekend 

Widrick Maple

Widrick Maple, owned by Phil and Alayne Widrick, has been in business 8 years and features 10,000 taps.  This is a woods stop featuring a Tap Track vacuum monitoring system and an unusual method of getting electric to distant points in the sugarbush.

Shultz Family Cheese

Shultz Family Cheese is owned and operated by Sue, Joe, and Bronson Shultz. We have a 40 cow dairy farm which produces the milk we use to process our fresh cheese curd. We graze our cows on pasture through the summer months and feed them forages that we harvest from the farm through the winter. We began making fresh cheese curd five years ago. We built a 20’X20’ processing room attached to our milk house and purchased a 460 gallon cheese vat. The milk never has to be pumped on to a truck, hauled to a plant, and pumped into holding tank; it is just pumped directly from our bulk tank to the cheese vat. We process two times per week from Memorial Day through New Years Day and once a week through the winter. Each batch makes approximately 460 pounds of cheese. We sell our cheese curd to a few local stores and it is used in dishes in a few local restaurants.

Sunday night social hour and trade show

No need to just check in with us this year on Sunday and retire to your hotel room. For this year’s tour we are offering a Sunday night social gathering to go along with our trade show vendors, all held at the Ridge View Inn. We are also honored to be featuring 2 guest speakers for the evening festivities. 

NY maple Specialist Steve Childs has agreed to do a talk on the different off flavors that can occur in Maple Syrup. This is a very hands on, and taste challenging seminar for those willing participants. 

Our second speaker will be Mr. Jeff Goulet from Lapierre equipment. Mr. Goulet is going to discuss the benefits of using a 1/4in bit and spile vs. the traditional 5/16 tap. As always Mr. Goulet will be bringing his high energy presentation ability backed by vast knowledge and research on this topic. 

As we all know with all these activities one could work up an appetite. Don’t fear because we have you covered in that department also. Awaiting our guests be 5 different choices of hot and cold appetizers for the evening. We will be offering Buffalo Beef Skewers, Traditional Buffalo chicken wings (2-3 flavors), a warm spinach artichoke dip, a vegetable platter, and finally a cheese and cracker platter featuring local Lewis County cheeses. 

Of course within Ridgeview inn there will be a fully operational cash bar so those that just want to sit down and talk Maple with other fellow guests. 

Tour accommodations

Monday Breakfast 

We are asking everybody to join the staff at Ridgeview Inn for our Maple tour breakfast. Our breakfast will consist of: Pancakes with real Lewis county maple syrup, Scrambled eggs 

Bacon and sausage, Home fries, OJ, Apple Juice, coffee, and water 

Monday Lunch 

For lunch we are going to be joining our friends the Mannsville Fire department for a traditional BBQ chicken lunch. We will be serving Cornell BBQ chicken along with potatoes and green beans. 

Monday Night Banquet

Well after a busy first day of the tour we hope you have brought your appetite once again. Our banquet meal will most certainly be a treat to everybody’s taste buds. This year we are offering a buffet style meal with any of the following choices. 

Beef tips (house cut sirloin tips, slowly sautéed in onions, mushrooms, and a home made Guinness beef gravy) 

Roasted chicken (slow roasted season to perfection chicken breast) 

Seafood Newburgh (shrimp, scallop, and lobster cooked in a sherry cream sauce) 

Fresh Garden Salad 

Garlic Smashed Potatoes 

Glazed Maple Carrots 

And for dessert Apple Crisp 

Tuesday Breakfast 

Once again we are asking you to join the Ridgeview Inn staff for yet another wonderful breakfast to get your day started. Our Tuesday offerings will be as follows: 

French Toast, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Fruit Salad, OJ, Apple Juice, coffee, and water 

Tuesday Lunch 

For Tuesday we will be joining our friends at the American Maple Museum for a jerked pork lunch. This will also include some form of potatoes and beans. Guests are also more than welcome to tour the Museum before or after they eat to see some of the new renovations the American Maple museum has been doing in the past few years.

The American Maple Museum: There are 3 floors of displays in the museum. On the first floor (Room #2, Room #3, Room #4, Room #5) visitors will find a replica of a sugar house, equipment room and the American Maple Hall of Fame.

On the second level (Room #1, Room #6) are exhibits of early syrup making techniques and equipment, maple syrup containers and sugar molds. Souvenirs and maple products are available in the Gift Shop.

Maple syrup production and logging go hand in hand thus the third floor (Room #7, Room #8, Room #9) is devoted to displays of logging tools and a replica of a lumber camp kitchen and office.