C'mon up for our Maple Weekends! Rent a house and tour a local maple syrup farm. It's the perfect Catskills winter getaway.

While you’ll still see the occasional galvanized bucket hanging off a maple tree collecting sap, you’re more likely to see a web of blue or green tubing weaving its way through woods as you drive through many areas of The Catskills. This is the modern approach to transporting maple sap straight from the tree to the pump house. And that’s just the beginning.

High-tech has come to maple syrup production, and a leader in the industry is Grahamsville’s Catskill Mountain Sugar House. They are one of numerous producers in Upstate New York participating in Maple Weekend this March, opening their doors to free tours for the public. Red Cottage Inc., also based in Grahamsville, is offering a free pint of Catskill Mountain Sugar House’s pure organic syrup to renters who head up to see their maple syrup operation on the weekends of March 17 & 18, and March 24 & 25, as part of Maple Weekend.

Frost Valley YMCA, one of the premier attractions in our region of The Catskills, will also be hosting tours on those weekends, with free sampling, and will kick-off the maple syrup season with a free hike to the sugar house on Saturday, March 10, 1.00-3.30. You’ll need to register in advance, and space is limited: bsnyder@frostvalley.org

So if you’re considering a winter weekend excursion, pick a house and head up for some fresh air, a walk in the woods, and learn a bit about how quality, local maple syrup is “farmed”, just two hours from the George Washington Bridge. For more information: http://www.redcottageinc.com/redcottageinc/maple.html or call (845) 985-7153

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