To Donald Monica maple production is a time honored tradition which was passed down to him from his grandfather when he was 12 years old.

Today, Monica is the owner of Maple Valley Farm in Corinth. He started harvesting maple trees on his 96-acre farm in 1962 and it is now in its fifth generation of maple producers.

“My grandfather was the first person to show me how to make maple syrup,” Monica said. “When I got a little older, I was still interested enough that I tapped a few trees. I figured I would just start with a couple quarts of syrup and see where it led me.”

In 1961 his parents bought the farm that Monica owns today. He said when he first moved to the farm he saw all the maple trees and got really excited

In 1964, Monica bought a used evaporator along with equipment like buckets and spouts which are essential to producing maple syrup. He took an old smokehouse, located on the farm, and converted it into a sugarhouse.

“At first, I made enough for the family and then I started making a little more and eventually decided to start selling it,” Monica said.

Maple Valley Farm became an official business in 1975. Monica started the farm with 20 taps and slowly built it up to 900 taps by the 1980s. Today, he has 2000 taps, 1,000 of which are connected to vacuum tubing and the other 1,000 taps are on natural flow tubing.

The farm itself has over 1,100 trees; the other 900 trees in which he taps are located on local farms throughout the area. Monica said that he tries offering the owners money for the use of their trees, but they usually just want syrup in exchange.

Monica usually starts tapping his trees around mid-March, when the weather has become warm enough for the sap to begin to run. He usually keeps the trees tapped until around mid-April.

Monica said that it depends on the sugar content, but it usually takes 30-35 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Last year, Monica produced 130 gallons of syrup on 1,100 taps; however, the year before he produced 330 gallons of syrup on the same amount of taps. This year, after one weekend of production, he has already produced over 50 gallons of syrup.

Most of Monica’s sales are contributed to area buyers. He said that 50 percent of sales come from local customers in Luzerne and Corinth, 40 percent to customers throughout the capital region and the remaining 10 percent are sent out to locations across the country.

Next weekend, Maple Valley will be one of approximately 19 maple producers from the area participating in the 13th annual New York State Maple Weekend.

They will be opening their doors March 29 & 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and they expect to have around 1,000 people visit the farm over the two-day period.

In addition to various maple demonstrations and samplings, the farm will also host a variety of activities that include hayrides to the sugarhouse, demonstrations by a local antique engine club, snowshoe racing, Adirondack mountain men, honeybee history, and a pancake breakfast featuring their very own maple syrup.

“It’s great because you have people coming from all around to see how maple syrup really gets made,” Monica said. “A lot of people just think you go into a store and pick it up and that’s as far as it goes. They don’t realize that there is a difference between artificial and pure maple syrup, so here they get an opportunity to see how it gets made and most people don’t leave without buying something.”

Aside from Maple Valley Farm, this year’s Maple Weekend will feature over 110 maple producers from across New York State who will open their doors for the annual event. If you are interested in visiting a local maple farm near you, than you can find out more information at: www.mapleweekend.com.