BY CHERYL SHUMWAYNorth Country This Week

What keeps local maple producers going year after year, despite the intense work and unpredictable weather?

 They are passionate and proud of their sweet hobby. It can provide some extra income as well.

 Many find happiness in continuing a tradition that has been a part of their families for generations.

“Our maple syrup business started about 60 years ago. We have four generations involved in the business,” said Jeff and Lori Jenness, second generation producers and owners of Orebed Sugar Shack, DeKalb Junction.

Laura and Paul McAdam were the first generation maple producers.  Bill and Brianne Tulley and Courtney and Jud Foote make up the third generation. Gavin and Carole Tulley, and Judson, Jeremiah, Josiah and Laura Foote are the fourth generation.

All family members were busy on opening day of Maple Weekend, March 22, with tours of the maple production.

Free horse-drawn carriage rides in their woods showed visitors some of the 2,400 tapped maple trees and vacuum lines bringing sap to the sugar house.

The younger generations helped lead the tours and operate the shop selling their many maple products.

“This season has been slower to start because of colder weather. We had 70 out of 2,400 taps missed because of deep snow and snowstorms,” said Jeff Jenness.  

His grandson, Gavin Tulley, laughed as he described the difficulty in finding the vacuum lines in the deep snow.

Maple sugaring also runs in the blood of the operators of Sweeter Creations, in Waddington. Current owner Michael Kenny said his grandfather, Clarence Kenny, had a small sugarhouse as a hobby. Michael later started his own sugarhouse, now in its 53rd year.  Last year it produced 2,400 gallons of syrup.

His son, Nicholas Kenny, helps out part-time, and Nicholas’ son Owen, age 7, is also beginning to help.

“Owen was upset when the snow this year was too deep for him to be able to tap the trees,” said Michael.

“I slept only two hours between Friday and Saturday because, with the warmer weather causing more sap to flow, we had 13,000 gallons of sap that we had to make into syrup,” said Michael.

Another generational family-run business in the Maple Weekend tour is Brick Chapel Maple, of Canton.

Owner Elliott Rodee, and his son Brandon Rodee, were busy stoking wood for their evaporator and monitoring its temperature to the precise boiling point for syrup production.

They were concerned maple production will a shorter season because of the warmer weather now.

“The old-timers said once you freeze the frogs out of hibernation three times the season is over,” said Elliott, who says the saying is not far off in predicting when the sap is done.

Woody’s Maples, in Hermon, is a sixth generation maple producer, with a large scale business. Owners Jessica and Josh Whitford were hoping to produce 6,000 gallons of syrup if they could get at  least two more weeks of sap running, despite the warming temperatures predicted next week.

“With the deep snow, it took forever to dig out the main lines this winter,” said Josh. “Snow was up to our chests and snowshoes did not help much.”

Trout Lake Maple owners Richard and Jeanne Hamilton, lease four nearby maple tree bushes and truck the sap to their sugar house, now relocated on Chub Lake Road, Gouverneur.

Their certified kitchen makes a wide variety of maple products from maple ice cream and donuts, to maple covered popcorn, nuts and pretzels.

They sell these maple treats in many local locations,  including Save-a-Lot stores, flea markets,  craft fairs, SLU Brewer’s Bookstore and White’s Flowers.

“If you can put maple in it, I sell it,” said Richard Whitford.