Sugaring season is in full swing in Thurman. Thurman Maple Days are set to begin March 10 and 11, continuing Saturdays and Sundays through March 25. Five Thurman maple producers — four of them the largest in Warren County – will open their sugarhouses to show how this age-old art is practiced with the help of technological advancements.

Each weekend offers open barns at Adirondack Gold, Valley Road, Hidden Hollow, Toad Hill and Windy Ridge maple farms, all offering free tours of sugarbushes and sugarhouses, with demonstrations and talks about tapping, evaporating, filtering and candy-making. Toad Hill will offer wagon rides to the sugar bush through a traditional covered bridge. Windy Ridge will demonstrate sugaring done the old fashioned way, a pancake breakfast will be held at Valley Road, and Adirondack Gold Tapper’s will lead snowshoe hikes into the sugar bush.

There will be samples and shopping for an expanded inventory of maple treats. Also hosting will be Martin’s Lumber & Certified Tree Farm with maple boards, wood burning and pottery art, bird house kits and make your own paperbead bracelet. Peru Llama Farm offers ferret petting, llama kisses and special Certificate of Language Proficiency to kids 12 and under. Blackberry Hill sells organic poultry and non-GMO pork and Nettle Meadow Farm offers cheese tasting and, weather permitting, hourly farm tours to sanctuary critters. Activities at all sites run 10 am till 4 pm. Valley Road Maple Farm opens an hour early each day, serving pancakes and Oscar’s sausages from 9 till 1.

A brochure and map is available here.

On Saturday, March 10, Thurman town hall, 311 Athol Rd., Athol, will host live music by the Warren County Ramblers as guests fill plates Thurman Maple Sugar Party at the annual Thurman Maple Sugar Party, a meal crowned with dessert of old fashioned maple jackwax (also known as “sugar on snow”). Residents of Thurman for 59 years have gathered this way during sugaring season to raise money for the American Cancer Society. The dinner begins at 4 pm and runs until all are served. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids. For more information call (518) 623-3072, or email PersisGranger@aol.com.

For more information contact Randy Galusha at (518) 623-4744, or email toadhillmaple@gmail.com. This event is made possible, in part, by Warren County occupancy tax dollars granted by the Town of Thurman.

Photo provided.