Cedar Brook Sugar House, Malone New York

It was the last of the Maple Weekends and I went to visit the Cedar Brook sugar house near Malone, New York. It was obviously brand new and very large:

The cupola appeared to me to be purely decorative. It was lighted inside and was not used for escaping steam. As you can see, the steam was escaping from the vent right behind it:

Inside, they had set up free samples and coffee. A friendly man told me about the family's efforts to build this impressive structure:

In the next room, another man was boiling sap - and it was sure steamy:

I never figured out what was being collected in this bucket, if it was sap to be boiled again or waste. It was far too thin to be syrup:

A red light suddenly came on, but by then my camera lens was too fogged up to take any more photos, so I returned to the retail/office area:

They had many maple based items for sale in the showroom:

And everything was artfully displayed:

There was maple popcorn and maple cream:

Maple syrup and maple cotton candy:

They told me that they made maple peanut butter, which sounded great to me - but they didn't seem to have any for sale, possibly a good thing because I don't need the calories:

I had a second sugar house to visit, just a few miles away, so I left the Cedar Brook sugar house and tried driving to it. After many miles of twisting, mountainous gravel roads and dead ends, I gave up finding the second sugar house. Instead, I drove to Malone and got myself a sub for lunch, eating it on my way home:

Town Line Road

This is Part 3 of my driving tour. I'd come to the end of Alburg Road and turned right onto Town Line Road, where I stopped to snap a picture of this sugar house and the small outbuilding behind it. Maple syrup is big business here in the north country:

I've passed this small house and barn before, and it always looks uninhabited. If so, it's a shame because it looks to be a well built home in a beautiful location. I also sometimes wonder if it might be an Amish school house:

This farm house had a lovely wrap-around porch and was nearly hidden behind the trees:

A very old house, abandoned long ago:

And one of the most beautiful barns I've seen:

As I passed by the elaborate barn, I noticed a small building which looked like it once was a farm stand but is now a shed for tools and kids' bicycles:

A herd of beef cows watched me go by:

Beautiful, well kept barns and red cattle:

A traditional red barn with a silo and hay bales:

They apparently used small hay bales as well as the big round bales, judging by the elevator into the hay loft:

I was stopped by these bossy turkeys in the road, but I didn't need to get pushy because I could see the road dead-ended just ahead. Instead, I turned left onto Snell Road - but I'll post those photos tomorrow:

Garvin Road, Town Of Bangor, New York

I was driving home one day and passed Garvin Road, so I turned onto it and brought out my camera. The first place I came to was this handsome, old style farm, complete with dual silos and farm equipment:

And the corn crib out back was filled nearly to capacity. I wondered if they might have pigs, though I didn't see, hear or smell livestock of any sort:

This old barn and silo were rundown and I suspected they hadn't been used in years:

As I drove by, I could tell I'd been right. This barn has been out of commission for a long time:

A farm house, typical of the area:

Another old barn, also apparently no longer used:

People were still farming, though this corn field had not been harvested:

I took a close look at the once proud dairy farm sign on this barn and learned that it was once called Scattered Acres:

Farm equipment and baleage, with an outbuilding almost hidden behind the trees:

Barns, silo and grain bin, apparently no longer used:

Old fields, whose barbed wire and trees indicate that they once were pastures. Maybe they still are:

A small farm beneath big trees:

Coming closer to the above farm, it seemed as if no one lived there anymore but they were still harvesting firewood:

A sugar house. This is big maple syrup country. This is where I ended my driving tour, so I put my camera away and headed for home:

The Cornell University Maple Research Center

My sister and I had just visited the John Brown farm in Lake Placid, NY (see yesterday's post) and began driving back to the main road. But we had to stop for photo of the Adirondack high peaks behind the John Brown farm. You can just see the peak of the John Brown farm house above the little shed. As for the mountains, I can't identify them although I probably hiked a good number of them when I was younger:

We could also see the Lake Placid Olympic ski jumps from the John Brown farm:

So before getting back on the main road, we pulled in for a closer look. The picture doesn't convey the immense size of these things. They were impressive!

Before leaving Lake Placid, we stopped at the Cornell University Maple Research Station:

It was very much open, even though they weren't currently boiling sap:

We went inside the sugar house to see the huge, modern evaporator:

Signs explained the operation:

And maple syrup was available for folks to buy if they arrived when the building wasn't open:

And then we went into the main building:

That was a busy place, with a number of people unpacking boxes of empty jugs and then filling them with syrup:

There was, of course, maple syrup for sale - and lots of it:

One man began explaining the operation to us:

They also make birch syrup, so he gave us a taste. The funny thing was that everyone described the taste differently. The man said it was savory, not sweet. My sister said it was fruity. I thought it tasted like molasses. Some people say it has a mineral taste. One thing I can say is that it is much more expensive than maple syrup, largely because it takes more sap per gallon of syrup, but also (I suspect) because there are fewer big birch trees in the forest and a smaller market for it. My sister purchased both types of syrup to take back with her to Ohio. This was the end of our Adirondack excursion, so we headed back to the farm to let the dogs out. They were sure happy to see us: