WV Maple Days

Greg’s family has owned this farm for over 100 years.

It’s about 3 minutes from the original Wayne Graded

which became Wayne Elementary School,

where I spent my first 4 years as an elementary teacher.

On this land are 148 maple trees (one sugar bush),

all connected with blue tubes

collecting sap and bringing it into the sugar shack.

Yes, that’s right. No cute little metal buckets.

Greg and his dad collect sap

from 3 sugar bushes,

though, many of those trees were destroyed

in the recent ice storm.

Greg is a super smart guy

and it’s a good thing

because modern maple syrup making is complicated!

The sap comes into the building here,

and is collected in this 600 gallon tank.

Then it goes through a reverse osmosis filtering system

which removes yucky stuff, as well as,

most of the water!

It goes through

two more small tanks,

and lastly here

where the remaining water is boiled off

and the syrup is ready to be bottled.

I came home with maple syrup,

maple cream and maple granola…

I also bought maple cotton candy,

but I don’t know what happened to it;)

WV Maple Days is held on family farms around the state

only on one weekend in February and one in March,

so add this FB page, Tom’s Creek Family Farm,

and go next year!

On the way home,

I stopped at

TwelvePole Trading Post.

Empty for years, this old building has a new life

thanks to Lacy Davidson Ferguson and others.

Locally made products, baked goods, coffee,

garden supplies, and more can be purchased here

on Saturdays from 10-3.

Lacy has more exciting plans for this place…

Here’s a link to their FB page.

It was a great day:

I learned so much about making making maple syrup, and

the trading post is warm and inviting with couches and coffee!

I met smart, beautiful, creative people

making West Virginia better.

Thanks for following along,

Linda

Published by Art by Linda

Artist

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