Our maple syrup is 100% pure with no additives. With over 100 years of experience we guarantee the finest maple syrup money can buy
The MapleCrest farm is located In Bliss New York, about 60 miles south of Buffalo New York. We have been making maple syrup at this location for over 100 years; spanning over 4 generations in the Barber family.
The business has grown, when my great grandfather started out he would tap about 100 trees. The business has now grown to over 5000 maple trees tapped
The production of maple syrup has changed a great deal over the past 100 years. The first challenge back in the old days was getting to the woods They used horse and sleigh.
The first step was tapping the maple trees. A hole was drilled by hand; a spout was driven in the hole. Then a bucket was hung on the spout.
The next step was collecting the maple sap for boiling into syrup. Maple sap runs when certain weather conditions exist. Sap flows when we have freezing and thawing weather conditions. When the weather is freezing the sap is forced into the roots of the maple tree. When the temperature goes above freezing the sap flows up the tree collecting into the bucket.
In the early days sap was gathered by hand using a horse and a sleigh. It was very labor intense. A person would have to go to each tree and collect the sap into a 5 gallon bucket; then carry it out to the gathering tank for transport to the sugar house.
The next step was boiling the sap into syrup. It takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. In the early days wood was used to make the fire to boil the sap into syrup. It would take about 20 cords of wood to last the season.
The last step was bottling the syrup for sale. In the early days there was no electricity at the sugar house. They would use lanterns as a light. I remember sitting in the sugar house bottling by lantern light; how times have changed.
> Steve Barber
The production of maple syrup has been automated. There is a considerable amount of time spent maintaining equipment each year. However much of the labor intensive work has been eliminated
Buckets and spouts have been replaced with vacuum lines that pump the sap right to the sugar house.
Boiling the sap has been greatly improved. Reverse osmosis equipment is used to eliminate water in the sap before boiling it into maple syrup. This saves money on fuel costs
Old wood burning boiling equipment has been replaced with a high efficiency oil burning unit.
> David Barber
Sugar house 1950-1990
Vern Barber building the fire
The fire1
Syrup boiling in wood fired evaporator
Sugar house in operation
