A Sweet Couple and their NY Maple Syrup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bobbi and Garry Wohlschlegel started their Naples, NY, eponymously named maple products business in 2010. Both are Kodak retirees, she a chemist, he a machinist, and lifelong hobby farmers. They combine their talents and run their year-around company with smiles on their faces. Their farm is a Grown and Certified Tree Farm which requires Forest Management certification. Facing east and with a slope, it’s a perfect maple tree growing environment and even better for harvesting sap.

Tucked up on a hill above Naples, their 43 acre farm with 4000 tapped sugar maple trees, are strung together with lateral lines feeding to black lines using gravity to move the sap down to a pump station located at the bottom of the farm. Bobbi, pictured above, is demonstrating the tap and release valves and tubing. The sap, which generally runs from January through April, is then pumped up to the Sugar House and goes through various stages of syrup making processes. Those include extensive filtering, reverse osmosis, checking the brix – a measurement also used in wine making checking sugars – and evaporation producing four flavors of maple syrup. I’ve simplified the process tremendously but turnaround is 18 hours from pump to the evaporation tank cooking to the various flavors and then to stainless steel tanks for storage. All this has to be done straight away so each tank along the way can be emptied for the next load. It’s a 24/7 ordeal.

The result are syrups that have unique tastes: Golden and Delicate, Amber and Rich, Dark and Robust and Very Dark and Strong. All are 100% natural and unrefined, with no additives, colors or preservatives. No sugar is added.The nutritional value is high in antioxidants and minerals and it tastes great! Garry is pictured above bottling the end product, but the work doesn’t stop there. Marketing is a full time job. Festivals, farmers markets, tours, and fulfilling orders is a year-around responsibility. You can make the best product but people have to know about it and they work hard getting the word out.

Which brings me to their ancillary products with recipes that require Cornell University’s approval for maple integrity. Those include: maple candy, soap, mustard, lozenges, teas, coffee and my new favorite BBQ Sauce. It’s Garry’s recipe, which I bought, and is the first bbq sauce that I didn’t have to “doctor up”. I roasted pork ribs, first with olive oil to get a crust and then slathered the ribs with their Fire in the Bush Maple BBQ and Dipping Sauce ($8). After 45 minutes at 350 degrees they came out looking gorgeous and were absolutely scrumptious. I also bought their Dark and Robust syrup which at $20 for a quart is very reasonable, and is lusciously colored and deeply flavored.

Producing 133,000 gallons of sap which turns into over 2000 gallons of syrup, annually, “is a lot of hard work, dedication, working long hours, but a lot of love leaves out the doors”, said Bobbi. All their products are available online with national shipping available. Their Sugar House is open year around but you better call first during the winter months since that 7 mile road up the hill will be testy in the snow. The last two weekends in March, is their Maple Weekend Open House with a pancake breakfast. More event information can be found on their website. For Rochester locals, you’ll find them at the year-around Brighton Farmers Market.

 

 

Opinions of the author are her own and products were purchased or otherwise noted for discussion. I welcome your comments and suggestions for food and specialty items from upstate New York and can be reached at: linda@anexpatreturns.com

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