MIDDLEPORT, N.Y. (WKBW) — To celebrate the harvest, farms across the state are opening their doors to the public for the final Maple Weekend on March 28 and 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Farms are offering free tours, samples, and live demonstrations, giving people a front-row seat to see exactly how their syrup is made.
Jason Wolf started his family maple farm in Middleport over 20 years ago. He walked me through the farm, showing me that what looks like simple trees are actually the start of something sweet.
"You can see the sap is running today, Wolf said. "We've made this very large tap just to show everybody that the sap does run out of the maple tree. It's a clear liquid, has about 2% sugar in it."
The process started long before modern-day equipment. Indigenous communities in the Northeast were the first to harvest and boil sap into syrup. Today, that tradition lives on with a few modern upgrades.
WATCH: Western New York farms give the public a front-row seat to their operations during Maple Weekend
Wolf's family business has grown alongside Western New York's maple industry, now utilizing nearly 1,500 taps.
"In my woods, I have a tubing collection system, because it would take a long time to go collect," Wolf said. "We have 1,500 taps on the farm. It'd take a long time to go dump 1,500 buckets. So we use a tubing system and a transfer tank, and we bring it up here to the sugar house."
Inside the sugar house, that clear sap transforms and is boiled down into golden syrup.
"You can taste everything from the sap out of the maple tree to the different finished maple products...It's a lot of fun. It is a free family event," Wolf said.
With nicer weather expected, Wolf said he hopes to see a strong turnout for the final weekend of the season.
"Looking forward to seeing how many people come out," Wolf said. "It's supposed to be a nicer weekend...So just hoping to get as many people as we can come and buy everything, have a good time."
You can find a full list of participating maple farms here.
