The old and new Sugar Shack
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The original Sugar Shack in 2010. You can just see the blue shed on the far left that is now "connected" to the rest of the buildings.
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The expanded Sugar Shack in 2015 when still heating with wood.
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Now we're heating with gas so the woodpile (and many man-hours of labor) is gone.
How the sugaring started
Back in the 90's, a family from the Rochester, NY area decided to buy some land in the Adirondacks and to start a small maple sugaring facility as a fun thing to do in the winter months. They named their maple syrup, Kanarondack Maple Syrup, and still sell under that name.
In 2011, they decided to sell and relocate to another parcel just outside of Rochester. As we were already neighbors, they offered to sell to us before listing on the market and we decided it would be a great property for a Horse Camp in addition to having a small maple sugaring facility.
In 2011, they decided to sell and relocate to another parcel just outside of Rochester. As we were already neighbors, they offered to sell to us before listing on the market and we decided it would be a great property for a Horse Camp in addition to having a small maple sugaring facility.
2011 and beyond
As we had never done any sugaring, we contacted a local experienced maple syrup producer and asked if he was interested in working with us. We then set out to make the original small facility into a large enough one that it might become profitable. To that end, we purchased another 4 parcels to make a total of 200 acres and we now have over 12,000 maple trees tapped.
We did convert part of the property into a Horse Camp, which we named Camp Kanarondack, in honor of the previous owners. We refer to the Horse Camp as Camp "K" so now call the maple syrup program, Camp K Maple Syrup.
We did convert part of the property into a Horse Camp, which we named Camp Kanarondack, in honor of the previous owners. We refer to the Horse Camp as Camp "K" so now call the maple syrup program, Camp K Maple Syrup.