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
