maple syrup

Tapping into the sweet legacy of maple syrup
By Katrine Dermody
May 27, 2014 - 3:15pm
Every spring, Howard LaFever faithfully harvests sap from 400 sugar maple trees in Morrisville.

Howard LaFever has been making maple syrup since he knew how to walk.

Back then, he and his siblings would collect old cardboard boxes and fall asleep next to the hearth in the sugar shack as their father and grandfather boiled sap late into the night.

Today, many years later, LaFever is an accomplished engineer, he is married and he has children and even grandchildren. Unofficially living by the “work hard, play hard” motto, LaFever collects antique and modern race cars — and don’t let his age fool you, this grandpa races. And he wins.

It's the real deal
By Christine Mehta
March 29, 2010 - 8:33pm
Every spring, Critz Farms holds its annual Maple Syrup Celebration. Visitors to the farm find out exactly how the real maple syrup they drizzle over their pancakes is made, from tree to bottle.

“This is way better than IHOP,” said Syracuse University senior Joe Frandino.

At IHOP, Frandino and his friends would have eaten their pancakes with the gelatinous, dark brown, high-fructose corn syrup concoction commonly known as imitation maple syrup.  In their search for an off-campus Sunday morning activity, they discovered Critz Farms and its delicious homemade maple syrup.