Loch’s Maple Syrup owner Randy Loch, right, discusses the long process of making syrup to a crowd of guests at an open house Sunday at his Springville syrup processing set up. On the left is Jordan Clark, 16, who is the youngest syrup producer in Susquehanna County and had his own set up in Dimock.
BY MAX BENNETT
Times-Shamrock Writer
It’s the time of year when the sap starts flowing, and that means locally made maple syrup starts flowing.
With temperatures warming, the Endless Mountains Maple Syrup Producers Association celebrated Maple Week-end on Saturday and Sunday with open houses at eight maple syrup producers in Bradford and Susquehanna counties.
At Loch’s Maple Syrup in Springville, owner Randy Loch explained to many guests how he gathers, boils, and ultimately sells his homemade syrup.
To rid sap of water, it is evaporated off and Loch said he uses 200 pounds of wood stove pellets each hour to keep the sap hot enough.
While Loch explained the labor intensive process of producing authentic maple syrup, guests were treated to waffles on a stick served with, of course, Loch’s maple syrup.
Loch said he began making syrup 34 years ago with a makeshift set up.
“We have 8,500 taps in trees now,” he said.
Loch said he added over 100,000 feet of tubing, which connects the taps to a system carrying sap to the processing house.
With a large evaporator, a reverse osmosis system, and intricate filters, Loch now sells everything from classic maple syrup to maple mustard to maple lip balm.
Guests at Loch’s not only got to see how syrup is made, they saw hand-spun yarn demonstrations as well as weaving, soap making, quilting, and broom making.
Cecily Roe was using wool to hand spin yarn.
With her foot constantly working the spin pedal, Roe told guests the sweater she was wearing took about 40 hours of handspinning.
Guests felt the differences between American and Icelandic wool, alpaca yarn, and even yarn made from dog hair.
“It still smells like a dog,” Roe said to guests, who just had to find out for themselves if it still had the unmistakable scent of a dog.
Roe discussed how important it is to remove dirt, short hairs, and any other unwanted materials in the wool or fur that is about to be spun.
Other syrup producers that held open houses were White Barn Farm in Rome, Dewy Meadows Maple in Warren Center, Roloson Brothers Maple and Cabot Hollow Maple in Troy, Bradley-Mann Maple in Gillett, Fay’s Maple Products in Columbia Crossroads, and Wayside Maple in Granville Summit.
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