“Evening in a Sugar Orchard”

From where I lingered in a lull in march
outside the sugar-house one night for choice,
I called the fireman with a careful voice
And bade him leave the pan and stoke the arch:
‘O fireman, give the fire another stoke,
And send more sparks up chimney with the smoke.’
I thought a few might tangle, as they did,
Among bare maple boughs, and in the rare
Hill atmosphere not cease to glow,
And so be added to the moon up there.
The moon, though slight, was moon enough to show
On every tree a bucket with a lid,
And on black ground a bear-skin rug of snow.
The sparks made no attempt to be the moon.
They were content to figure in the trees
As Leo, Orion, and the Pleiades.
And that was what the boughs were full of soon.

New York State Awards:

3rd Place – Light Amber

4th Place – Granulated Sugar

The January 30th meal featured maple glazed salmon. The event’s chef, Luke, graciously shared his recipe with us.  Try it and let us know what you think — the guests at Hillsdale were enthusiastic about the dish.

Maple Glazed Salmon

Maple Glazed Salmon:
Heat the grill to a very high temperature. Next, cook the salmon on one side, but keep it as close to rare as possible. After grilling, glaze the fish and cook in the oven for seven minutes. Enjoy!

Maple Glaze Recipe:
1 cup Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce
1 cup Bourbon “Your Choice”
1 cup Grade A medium syrup

Before the holiday, we will be selling our turkeys for five dollars per pound, Monday through Wednesday. Don’t hesitate since they’ll sell fast! 

While you’re picking up your turkey, remember to grab some maple syrup, as well. It complements apple pie and is great with maple coffee. Maple syrup will add flavor to some of your favorite Thanksgiving dishes.

If you are interested in buying our turkeys, or maple syrup, please give Roxbury Mountain Maple  a call.

The equipment we use for this process includes spiles, brace and bit, collection buckets, and an evaporator.  The trees that are best suitable for tapping are about 1 ½ feet in diameter and are well exposed to the sun.

The tapping process takes place during a small window, which is very dependent on the weather. The winter of 2011 was great; we tapped for nearly three months straight. The winter of 2012, thanks to the unseasonably warm weather, was comparatively awful. We were barely able to tap for more than a couple of weeks.The sap begins to flow when there is a hard freeze at night and sunny weather during the day, with temperature in the 40′s. If daytime temperatures do not go above 40, or if night temperatures do not go below 40, the sap stops flowing.

The trees are tapped using vacuum-sealed lines that run to our sap house, so when we have a good run the sap from all over the mountain comes gushing through our tubing into storage tanks. From there, it goes into a reverse osmosis machine to remove some of the water content and concentrate the sugar. The concentrated sap is then boiled down to syrup in an evaporator and stored in barrels for bottling.

We always encourage customers to come visit us in the Catskill Mountains! The entire process is fascinating to watch (and even more fascinating to participate in), and when the sap is boiling the sugarhouse smells like heaven. If you want to visit Roxbury Mountain Maple, call us today. Don’t forget that you can order  maple syrup online, as well.

Since 1976, the Union Square Greenmarket has allowed farmers, fishermen, and bakers to connect with new customers in a great public space.  This year’s market should see over 100 vendors offering wines, ciders, fruits, vegetables, and of course Roxbury Mountain’s finest maple syrup products.

The Greenmarket has grown exponentially over the past 35 years, and Roxbury Mountain is honored to take part. Join us at the Greenmarket and support local agriculture while you socialize with 60,000 like-minded shoppers and farmers. Watch cooking demonstrations and taste delicious food by some of New York’s finest local chefs.

More information

Union Square Greenmarket
North and west sides of Union Square Park
Open Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday
8:00AM – 6:00PM

[the market will be closed Friday 11/23/12]

WIC and FMNP checks accepted at farmer stands
EBT/Food Stamps accepted at the market info tent

Health Bucks now available – for every $5 spent in EBT, customers receive a
$2 Health Buck coupon to purchase additional fruits and vegetables.

March 17th–18th and 24th–25th from 12pm -6pm.

Each day will include an assortment of activities, such as:

• Demonstrations of making maple cream, sugar and cotton candy.
• Learning first hand how maple syrup is produced
• Touring our state-of-the-art sugar house
• Wagon rides through the sap grove.
• Samples of our amazing maple products!

Come and enjoy a taste of maple. Also, bring the kids and get a little taste of farm life by meeting Rodney the steer, Penelope  the goat and our adorable baby chicks!

     For more information give us a call as well as check out the New York Maple  Weekend’s website at www.mapleweekend.com.

February 1st marks the first boil of the year for our season and it was far from leisurely. We now have over 7,000 trees tapped, which means when we boil, we boil and boil and boil! 10:15am the furnace went on and at 6:49pm we cleaned the last evaporator pan. But it pays off when the day ends with 122 gallons of golden syrup!

Here’s a little look at our day…

The day started with making sure all equipment was clean and ready to go, this included Joel giving his boots the sauna treatment.

Rebecca is our fearless woods-woman...today she tramped through the hills fixing leaks in the tubing

She's also the tractor queen.

Boiling away!

Mrs. Anderson mans the draw off.

And Joel keeps her company when she takes a rest. The job comes with perks: free samples!

Ruth keeps us laughing all through the day!

Reagan didn't want to miss out on the fun.

Caleb was honored with the first taste of the year.

We know how to keep ourselves entertained when Ruth's not around.

The day ended with the Promise of another good season!