— A little history —
“It all started in a small way back in 1934. My grandfather gave my father (Francis Curtis, Jr.) 50 buckets and spiles and two sap pans to encourage us to make use of some of the maple trees growing on the property he had purchased in Sterling Township in 1925. There were 30 acres, including a large farmhouse, an old blacksmith shop, a barn and small outbuildings, for $2500. Maple syrup had been produced on the Curtis farm north of Waymart where my father had grown up. It was the primary sweetener in those days. I recall staying at my grandfather’s house as a child and being sent to the summer kitchen to get soft maple sugar from a large basswood tub for our early morning pancakes.”
Decades later, we’re still tapping the sugar maples at Journey’s End Farm. Our season begins in February by drilling upwards of 1,500 tap holes. As the days warm, the trees begin to break their winter dormancy. Alternating temperatures between freezing at night and thawing during the day cause the sap to flow from the roots up to the crown. It is in this short window, the sweet spot between winter and spring, that we collect sap. Fresh sap is as clear and thin as water, and only slightly sweeter. To achieve the rich, amber treat that you recognize as maple syrup, we boil the sap for hours in a wood-fired evaporator. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup. That’s a lot of firewood! After the sap is reduced to syrup, we filter any naturally occurring sediment, and can it up into bottles large and small. That’s it — nothing more, nothing less than pure Pennsylvania maple syrup. We hope a bottle makes it from our saphouse to your kitchen.
— Where to find our syrup —
Our syrup is available year round at the farm, and in November and December at the Main Street Market in Honesdale, PA. Please pre-order for on farm pick up, or give us a call if you'll be in the area to check what sizes and syrup grades we have on hand.
We are now shipping syrup! If you’d like to place an order, please visit our Maple Store.
