Sam Harper displays the variety of syrups produced by she and her husband, Ricky, at Cool Hollow Maple Farms.
By Stephen Smoot
Old Man Winter marshalled all of the forces at his disposal last Saturday, but no combination of cold temperatures, bitterly raw winds, rain, ice, and snow could keep Pendleton County from celebrating the first of two Maple Days.
The annual event, this year held on Feb. 15 and March 15, is made available by the West Virginia Maple Syrup Producers Association, with support from Kent Leonhardt, West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture. Locally, the Pendleton County Convention and Visitors Bureau and Future Generations University on North Mountain promote and celebrate the event.
Several producers, sellers, and promoters signed up to help expand the offerings of Maple Days.
Two, however, demonstrate how maple production can lead in different directions.
More than a decade ago, Cool Hollow Maple Farm opened operation on a generations old family farm. Ricky Harper and his wife, Sam’s, hard work has helped Cool Hollow grow into one of the more productive maple farms in West Virginia.
Sam, who hails from Bellaire, Ohio, shared that Cool Hollow started on her husband’s generations old family farm.
She explained how up until a few years less than a century ago, the Harper family tapped its trees for the maple sap. “They’d cook it down to sugar instead of syrup and use it for bartering,” she explained.
Home based production of necessities from the land was a common practice dating back to frontier days. Trading enabled farmers to focus on what they and the land produced best while not trying to serve every single one of their own needs.
By the “late 30s and early 40s and the price of white sugar decreased,” she explained. “It didn’t make sense to make your own sugar.”
Through the 1990s, Cool Hollow Farms focused on traditional practices, such as raising cattle. Drought conditions that settled in the region in the 1990s, however, showed that the farm did not have enough reliable sources of water to sustain a cattle operation anymore.
Sam Harper then shared that at the same time that her husband was growing up, a Highland County, Virginia, producer started tapping trees next door and shared that “he had a lot of potential” in the farm’s numerous maple trees that they “never really considered.”
They traveled to Vermont, America’s mecca of maple, to learn more. Sam Harper said after that, things started to move quickly. On the site where her husband’s ancestors had run their operation, the two constructed a modern “sugar shack” with new equipment designed for efficiency and quality.
Both of the Harpers teach in Pendleton County Schools, but see running maple production as a second full time job that consumes all farm operations.
“Statewide, we have sent maple to Wheeling, Beckley, Martinsburg, Elkins, too,” while shipping to individual customers as far away as Alaska.
To serve those customers better, the Harpers plan to expand their number of taps from approximately 5,000 to almost 7,000. This would make them one of the larger producers in the state.
On the other side of the county, Chris and Melinda Grimes once again made their sugar shack at Mountain Cajun Getaways the maple center of Circleville.
“It all goes back to that fellowship,” said Chris Grimes, who added that he also enjoys seeing maple help “the building of the community.”
Through purchases of maple products, the area supports the core mission of the Grimes, which is using a mountain retreat to help families of veterans adjust when a member returns from long term deployment.
The Grimeses sell maple syrup and a broad spectrum of related products, almost all made with products either raised or gathered in the region.
On Saturday, the family threw a party in their sugar shack. Melinda Grimes, a Louisiana native, prepared lunches for sale with either gumbo or crawdad etouffee. Many braved the unpleasant weather to huddle in and near the sugar shack.
Some came from other states, others from just down the road.
He went on to say, “What I’d really like to see for the whole county is this kind of stuff.”
One of the goals of Maple Days in Pendleton County lies in bringing visitors to enjoy what they taste, hear, do, and see throughout Pendleton County.
Louisa Householder of Bridgeport, who has a home in the county as well, brought several members of her family from both Harrison and Berkeley counties for Maple Days.
Householder has a sympathetic ear for the tales of maple producers since she serves as president of the West Virginia Beekeepers Association.
She explained the concept of “terroir,” one that applies to both maple and honey, especially in small scale production.
Both Melinda Grimes and Sam Harper shared interesting anecdotes about having representatives of major pure maple producers in Canada and Vermont trying their West Virginia made product.
Last year, Canada manufactured nearly 20 million gallons of real maple syrup (as opposed to most store bought whose sweetness comes not from trees, but cornfields). Vermont produced a little more than half of the real maple made in the United States, a little more than three million gallons.
By comparison, West Virginia produces about 70,000 gallons.
The major producers told both the Grimes and Harpers that West Virginia maple is preferable to theirs. Even with pure maple, mass production requires consistency in taste that only reflects maple content.
West Virginia small batch producers, however, value the diversity that comes from terroir. That diversity includes taste flourishes and qualities that make each batch unpredictable in exactly how it will turn out.
As Householder explains, terroir refers to the environmental factors that affect the taste of the final product. Shifts in weather, tree genetics, or any number of other variables, create strong differences in tastes and sometimes even textures of maple.
Sam Harper shared that their maple syrup can taste different than the product made just across the road.
The next Maple Day will take place on March 15. Check the West Virginia Maple Syrup Producers Association website for more details.