As I stepped into Mr. McComb’s sugar shack, my eyes grew wide with amazement. An enormous metal drum, capable of holding several hundred gallons of maple sap, loomed over my little 9-year-old frame. Countless metal pipes snaked in and out of the drum to other, smaller tanks in the shack. Dozens of little plastic tubes found their way into the shack from the tapped trees uphill. After admiring the indecipherable system of tanks and pipes for what seemed like hours, my brothers and I stepped out of the shack and into the cool forest. We began walking up the hill with Mr. McComb, following the trail of plastic tubing that split off and connected to every maple tree in the vicinity. There were several main plastic tubes and dozens of auxiliary ones, each connecting to a tap installed at about waist height on the maple tree. Mr. McComb taps hundreds of maple trees, and his farm stretches for two miles into the thick Adirondack forest. 

Maple Syrup production in the Adirondacks is an important cultural and economic activity. There are dozens of maple producers in the Adirondacks and most are concentrated in the eastern Adirondacks along Lake Champlain (Adirondack Regional Tourism Council). This makes McComb’s Oak Hill Farm unique, as he is the only producer in the Speculator-Wells-Piseco area. 

Like many things in the Adirondack Park, maple sugaring was originally a Native American tradition, which the Europeans learned as they settled the east coast of the United States. Native Americans incorporated maple sugaring into their cultural mythology, attributing the origin of the practice to Iroquois Chief Woksis. The legend maintains that Chief Woksis once threw his tomahawk into a maple tree, and his wife found that the liquid dripping from the tree was sweet. She used the sap in her cooking, boiling it down to maple syrup (Adirondack Experience). Maple sugaring retains its significance in the Adirondacks to the present day. Maple sap can only be collected in a few weeks in the month of March (Adirondack.net). To celebrate the collection of maple sap, the “Liquid Gold” festival opens up maple syrup production across the entire Adirondack Park to the public for the last two weekends in March. The festival teaches the art of producing syrup and passes on the cultural knowledge of the practice (Adirondack Regional Tourism Council). Maple syrup production has a rich cultural legacy that continues to this day.

Mr. McComb is my grandparent’s next door neighbor in Speculator, NY. Speculator is located in the south-central region of the Adirondacks. Mr. McComb’s full time job is producing maple syrup. He lives year-round in Speculator and operates his farm, McComb’s Oak Hill Farm, with his wife and two daughters. Mr. McComb gave my family tours of his facilities, including the sugar shack, when my siblings and I were little. Mr McComb sells his maple syrup at several local venues in Speculator. McComb sells his syrup at the grocery/general store, the weekly farmer’s markets in the summer, and in the small store in his home where people can drop in. I may be biased, but I think it is the best maple syrup ever made, and I even brought a bottle with me to Middlebury!

Works Cited

Adirondack Experience. “Maple Syrup in the Adirondacks.” Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, 4 Apr. 2017, www.theadkx.org/maple-syrup-in-the-adirondacks/.

Adirondack Regional Tourism Council. “Maple Sugaring | Official Adirondack Region Website.” Visitadirondacks.com, Adirondack Regional Tourism Council, 2020, visitadirondacks.com/what-to-do/maple-sugaring.Adirondack.net. “Adirondack Maple Sugar Houses: Tours, History & Events.” Adirondack.net, Adirondack.net, 2021, www.adirondack.net/things-to-do/maple/.