FORESTVILLE – Time to go shopping for maple syrup, maple cream, maple candy, maple jelly … Is there a theme here? That’s right – the annual Maple Weekend is rapidly approaching, scheduled to take place March 19 to 20 and April 2 to 3, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

DeGolier Maple Farm held its annual Chautauqua Maple Promotion Day to kick off the maple season Friday, which included a tour of the facilities and a ceremonial tree-tapping, conducted by state Assemblyman Andy Goodell.

Maple Weekend, held for two weekends in March and/or April, began in 1995 as “Maple Sundays,” with the ultimate goal of educating the public about the maple farming process in New York state.

Since then, it has expanded into the weekend-long affair that it is, with many activities and showings for people and families to partake in, from watching the tapping and boiling process to enjoying horse-and-wagon rides and walks in the woods. People can also buy the aforementioned foods, as well as maple mustard, maple tea, maple coffee, maple cotton candy and more.

Tom DeGolier, though only participating in the event for the past 10 years, is not new to the syrup-making scene.

“We’ve been making syrup here on this farm … for 60-65 years. … My dad made syrup, and it goes back six or seven generations. We have a medium-small sized operation here, with 2,200 taps, and everything is sized for speed,” said DeGolier.

A lot of the success of a maple season depends on the weather. As most realize, this winter season has been an extremely off season in terms of how the weather usually is in this region. This, unfortunately, has affected the maple-collecting process, but DeGolier doesn’t let that get him down.

“I’m consoled by other people, because their season isn’t going very well, either … But, we’re enjoying it. We’ve always enjoyed making maple syrup and I would never stop. I just enjoy it,” he said. “This year, the sap has not been as sweet as it has been some years, and I would speculate that has a lot to do with the previous years’ summer, and the rainy conditions we had.”

Despite the production of less syrup, DeGolier is firm in his belief that syrup prices should stay consistent and reasonable.

“I’m opinionated about syrup prices. We give away a lot of syrup to people. It is valuable to use and we want to make a profit off of it, and we do. This year maybe not so much, but we don’t like to raise our prices. We like to give people quality product at a price they can afford,” DeGolier said.

As for having less to sell, that just means DeGolier and his family have more time to make sure their product is top quality.

“We’ve had to turn people around who have been other places … and say they don’t like pure maple syrups, they like the corn syrup, and … we give them a bottle of syrup,” DeGolier explained passionately. “It’s serious to us that somebody would put something that doesn’t taste good, in a jug and it ends for generations, maybe, syrup use for that one person or family. They would have to get some good maple syrup to change that, and we have it. … Moving forward, we need to take care of that issue.”

DeGolier’s farm has around 2,200 taps, or around 1,000 trees. DeGolier has 35 acres of maple trees on his own property and he also taps another 60 acres of his neighbor’s property.

“We trade ground with them,” DeGolier said. “We tap his forest, and he grows corn for his dairy operation on our plowable land. It’s a neat arrangement.”

So why is maple syrup important? It’s just a sticky substance that demands to fill every Eggo and cavity-causing crater, right? Doesn’t Mrs. Butterworth have a plant this can all be done at? Besides, Canada does most of the work in terms of syrup-producing, right?

Actually, though, the maple syrup industry is an incredibly important part not just to Chautauqua County agriculture, but to the economy and the state as a whole as well.

“For every dollar a farmer generates in sales, $2.29 is added to the economy. So it’s really great, when Tom is going to the Fredonia Farmers’ Market … that money is just staying in the community and staying local,” said Katelyn Walley-Stoll, farm business management educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County.

DeGolier can be found at the Fredonia Farmers’ Market every Saturday, flipping sample pancakes to go along with his product. He says he retails about 600 gallons through that market. At $48/gallon, that’s $65,664 going back into the Fredonia economy!

Another interesting fact the OBSERVER inquired about – what makes different maple syrups, well, different? It all comes from maple trees and goes through, essentially, the same process – so why do some syrups taste different than others?

“The flavor differences are in the soils. I live on some really heavy clay ground … When I have some syrup, I want to just filter it through a muslin cloth,” DeGolier explained. “When I rinse the cloth, it’ll turn pink … that’s from the soil, and the clay. It’s typical of this area, the minerals in this soil. When you get to gravelly ground, it makes a huge difference in the flavors. It all has an effect on the flavor.”

The participants involved in the promotion day were all extremely passionate about Chautauqua County and its maple industry – especially Goodell.

“What we take for granted here in Chautauqua County in terms of high-quality maple syrup is it’s not the way it is here across New York state. I’ve enjoyed watching some of my New York City colleagues taste pure maple syrup for the first time. … When someone from outside our area tastes Chautauqua County grape products and our maple syrup, it’s a real eye-opener for them. I’m really proud of what we produce here in Chautauqua County,” said Goodell.

DeGolier will not, unfortunately, be found participating in Maple Weekend.

For more information, and to find out where Maple Weekend is occurring, visit www.nysmaple.com.