Our Woods Maple

Once upon a time, there was a loud family from suburban New Jersey who bought property in the quiet foothills of the beautiful Adirondack Mountains. The Montefuscos built a barn and a bought a tractor. They planted apple trees and fields of tall grasses to attract the wildlife. They survived mud season with two boys and three dogs. When they hadn't been to the Adirondacks in a while the little boys, Alex & JJ, would tug on their dad's pant leg and ask "Daddy, when are we going to Our Woods?" One day a local friend asked them to join him at his family's sap boil party. Having never seen maple syrup making in action, John Montefusco was enthralled by the process. "I can sooo do this next spring" he muttered and tapped six trees the following spring, steamed out the kitchen, almost destroyed the stove, and created a heck of a mess, and Our Woods Maple was born!

The little boys are in their 20s now and the trees are a full-fledged crop for the maple farm. Maple syrup is a by-product of the natural sap production of the trees. The sap is always in the trees but only palatable at a certain time, dictated ONLY by Mother Nature herself. When the deep-freezing nights of the North Country give way to sunny 35-40 degree days it creates a positive pressure allowing the sap to flow out of any "wound" to the tree. Sap is ground water pulled up through the roots of the tree and is imparted with natural sucrose as it passes through the sapwood layer. Our Woods Maple gathers the sap and brings it to the sugarhouse, where it is boiled down to concentrate the sugars. Turning the sap into maple syrup requires feeding the fire under the sap with firewood every 7-8 minutes for up to 12 hours at a time.

Our Woods Maple Products makes syrup, maple sugar, maple cream, maple candy floss, maple-sweetened lemonade and maple dog treats.