The couple began tapping maple trees on their 2.5-acre property nine years ago. At first it was a hobby carried out the old-fashioned way, using five-gallon buckets to collect the sap and a lot of sweat equity. Since that time, they’ve expanded onto seven acres of land in West Park, as well, utilizing some 1,500 taps overall and some sophisticated equipment such as the reverse osmosis machine they purchased that separates the water from the sugar to create their 100-percent pure syrup. It’s bottled under their label, Corey’s Sugar Shack, and the line of products now includes not only a classic, unadorned maple syrup but a maple barbecue sauce and a number of infused varieties such as their cinnamon-infused syrup or the garlic maple, which is ideal for marinades, or as Debra notes, can be mixed with balsamic vinegar and a little mustard to make a salad dressing.
“Our goal is to take maple away from the pancakes,” John says. At the different fairs and festivals the Coreys bring their product to throughout the year, they enjoy showing people how versatile maple syrup is, and how it can be adapted to all kinds of recipes. After all, if one is canning or pickling food, he notes, “you’re going to add sugar to it anyway. We’re just taking the cane sugar out and putting the maple syrup in. Or you’re taking the brown sugar out of a recipe and putting maple into it. It’s just putting a spin on things. And once you start talking food with people, everything comes together.”
Corey’s Sugar Shack also offers two barrel-aged maple syrups, a bourbon maple and an applejack variety made with local apples. The barrels come from the Clermont-based Hudson Valley Distillers. “When they’re done with their barrels, we take them back here and hot-pack them with syrup and age it for three months,” John says. In turn, the distillers, who have a tasting room at their establishment, offer an adult beverage there featuring the Coreys’ syrups.
Spring is normally the season for tours of the tapping process at Corey’s Sugar Shack, but those, of course, had to be cancelled this year. The shop on the property at 105 Hawley’s Corners Road in Highland will still be open Saturday and Sunday, March 28-29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for anyone who wants to come in and purchase syrups or maple candies. People can also shop the online store or get in touch by phone or email to arrange pickup or shipments.
“We’ve missed doing the tours this year,” Debra says. “They’re a lot of fun. It takes a lot of money to buy the equipment, but we can show people how to have fun with it in their own backyard. We’re thinking about doing something in the fall, some kind of fall festival, to get people back out here.”
If the Ulster County Fair is held this summer, look for Debra and John to be there making cotton candy with their cinnamon-infused maple syrup. They also do the Quail Hollow shows and Hudson Valley RibFest as well as the Rosendale Pickle Festival and others.
New York State is second only to Vermont in the production of maple syrup, and Sugar Maples are the official state tree. Syrup-makers begin harvesting sap as winter winds down, with temperatures of 40 degrees during the day and 20 degrees at night ideal for producing the sap, Debra says. Our relatively mild winter this year meant an earlier season, she adds, in which trees had to be tapped when they were ready in February rather than March.
When the sugar content of the sap is at the desired three percent, it takes 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of syrup, she notes. This year the sugar content was only two percent, so even more sap was needed. “If people didn’t have a vacuum system like we do, they didn’t get much at all.” Trees on the Corey property have a vacuum attached to each tap and the sap runs downward on a gravity system through tubing. Occupational hazards include squirrels, who love to chew on the lines. There’s a lot of upkeep to the process, and every year new taps have to be inserted.
The couple finance their business with fulltime jobs; John a heavy equipment operator and Debra a store manager for Tractor Supply. When asked how they find the time to do all they do, “it’s weekends, nights, any time, all the time!” says Debra. “You just have to make time for it.” But they love doing it, John adds, hooked on the process since first seeing the watery sap become thick syrup. “And people love it.”
The Coreys are planning on growing the business by increasing the taps at the West Park location to as many as 3,000-6,000 and they have their eye on yet another property of trees to tap on Pancake Hollow Road. They’re also experimenting with new products, such as a maple cream that John says can be used for anything from putting in coffee or tea to slathering on baby back ribs. “You add seasoning, wrap it in foil and put it in the smoker. The cream breaks down and the flavor is drawn into the ribs. It’s awesome.”
For more information about Corey’s Sugar Shack, call (845) 943-8013 or visit coreysfarm.com.
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