Late winter is a time when you might notice metal buckets on trees and smoke billowing from rural sugarhouses — sure signs that sugaring season has returned to Connecticut.
The Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut holds an annual celebration of sugaring season with Maple Weekend, which occurs this year on March 18th and 19th. There are 19 farms and sugarhouses participating in the occasion as well as three festivals taking place across the state.
Maple Weekend gives you a chance to tour a sugarhouse, sample a variety of maple products, and learn more about how maple syrup is produced in Connecticut.
Connecticut maple syrup
There are almost 200 farms producing more than 17,000 gallons of syrup a year in Connecticut, according to the USDA’s latest data. Connecticut ranks 10th among all maple producing states, and sugaring is generally not a full-time profession here. Many CT Grown farmers produce maple syrup to make the best use of their land and to supplement their income during the winter.
Connecticut maple syrup can be readily found at farmers’ markets, retail stores, and other local venues, including some grocery stores. Many of Connecticut’s sugarhouses are open to the public during the late winter, inviting people to learn more about how maple sap is converted to syrup and to purchase the maple products available for sale.
The maple syrup production process is accessible enough for hobbyists to try it on their own. The Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut includes not only farms and sugarhouses, but also individuals and community organizations. With the purchase of some affordable equipment, anyone can tap maple trees on their property and try their hand at the sugaring process.
Choosing the right maple syrup color
Maple syrup used to come in separate grades, but this system was changed in 2015 to keep consumers from mistakenly believing that Grade A syrup was of higher quality than the darker B and C grades. While all syrup is now listed as Grade A, it still comes in four distinct colors: Golden, Amber, Dark, and Very Dark.
Lighter syrups come from earlier in the sugaring season and have a milder flavor. This makes them ideal for pairing with traditional breakfast foods like pancakes and waffles, pouring on ice cream, or adding flavor to beverages like coffee or cocktails.
Darker syrups indicate that the sap was collected later in the season and has a more robust and intense flavor. These varieties are best used for cooking, baking, or creating glazes.
More than just syrup
Maple syrup is the primary product created from maple sap, but there are numerous other items maple producers put out each harvest season. Some of the most popular are granulated maple sugar, maple cream, and maple candy, a simple mixture of syrup and butter which is then molded into a variety of shapes.
Maple producers also frequently partner with other farmers in Connecticut to create tasty and unique CT Grown foods. These include maple-flavored milk, yogurt, and jams and jellies.
When is sugaring season in Connecticut?
Sugaring season traditionally takes place from early February through late March. This time of year tends to include a mixture of warmer days and freezing nights, and this freeze-thaw cycle is just what is needed to get the sap flowing in maple trees.
Producers make advance preparations for the sugaring season, such as deciding which maple trees to tap and collecting firewood for the sugarhouse, but the season itself only lasts about six to eight weeks. Trees are tapped using metal spouts called spiles, which allow sap to flow into covered metal buckets or through tubing to a holding tank.
After sap is collected, it is boiled to evaporate the water and increase the sugar content. The syrup is then filtered, graded, and bottled.
It’s the perfect time to pick up CT Grown maple syrup, so check out what’s at your local store or farmers’ market and mark your calendar for Maple Weekend!
March 16 @ 8:00 AM – 7:30 PM
The UConn Cannabis Symposium will be a premiere event for students, scientists, educators, and members of the cannabis industry to network and share information in the emerging cannabis field. Expert speakers cover topics related to cannabis such as: plant production, biochemistry and genetics, clinical impacts, law and policy, and the future of the industry.
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March 5 @ 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Features more than 35 regional vendors with a variety of locally produced products. Donations are accepted for a scholarship raffle. Snow date is March 12.
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March 22 @ 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Ag Day celebrates the diversity and success of Connecticut’s agriculture, featuring farmers, agricultural non-profits, producer associations, cooperatives, federal and state agricultural agencies, and Connecticut municipalities throughout the Capitol. The occasion allows farmers and other visitors to meet with their state legislators, sample CT Grown goods, and see the presentation of the Outstanding Young Farmer, Century Farm, and Ag Journalism awards.
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April 29 @ 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
As part of the University of Connecticut Extension’s CT Soil Health Initiative with USDA NRCS, the Spring Urban Agriculture Tour will be hosted at the Green Village Initiative’s Reservoir Community Farm. Learn more about urban farming methods that have proven successful as well as funding opportunities for infrastructure such as high tunnels, raised beds, irrigation systems, and other conservation practices.
Soil testing will be available at the event for attendees to test their soil for heavy metals.
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Winter is the best time to start planning the next season for your garden, but time is quickly running out! Whether you’re starting a new home garden or reviving an existing one, these steps will help ensure a productive spring.
Helpful Resources
- Find your USDA Hardiness Zone
- Get your soil tested at the University of Connecticut’s Soil Nutrient Analysis Laboratory
- Check the CT Grown crop calendar
- Follow the Connecticut Nursery & Landscape Association
March 2 @ 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
The event will include an exhibition of low and no-till farm equipment, methods and results for all scales of farming. Workshops will cover best methods for no-till seeding, crimping, etc., along with cover crop implementation for soil health improvement. The day will include farmer-to-farmer sharing of ‘best practices’, so farmers can exchange information on soil health methods that have worked on their farm.
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March 1 @ 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
If you are a farmer interested in opening a farmstand on your property, please join us to learn about key federal, state and local regulations that impact small food producers who seek to make and sell value-added products from home. We will cover what’s allowed when selling meat, eggs, dairy, cottage foods such as pickles and baked goods, and more, and explore the legal solutions that can help these businesses grow and thrive.
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As part of Black History Month, we’re highlighting how Connecticut’s Black-owned farms are planting the seeds for the state’s agricultural future. In addition to providing CT Grown products for the market, Black farmers are often actively involved in nonprofit groups working to improve access to fresh food in Connecticut’s cities through urban farms, community gardens, educational programs, and more.
Agriculture remains a predominantly White profession; just 2 percent of farmers in the United States are Black. The ratio is similarly lopsided in Connecticut. The last USDA Census of Agriculture in 2017 found just 25 Black farmers responded among Connecticut’s more than 9,500 agricultural producers.
Yet many young Black farmers are actively working to change perceptions about farming and encourage people of color to consider it as a career. Let’s take a closer look at some of these producers, how they’re shaping the future of CT Grown, and how you can support them.
Echo Farm
In a profile for the Boston Globe, Robert Chang recalls how he would visit his grandparents’ small farm while growing up in Jamaica. But he didn’t give agriculture a try until he was in his 30s, when he started a backyard garden at his home in Middletown. This proved so bountiful that he set up a roadside stand to sell the surplus.
That surplus inspired Chang to start a larger farm, and in 2015 he purchased a 14-acre property in Woodstock. He now runs Echo Farm, which grows organic produce and cut flowers that he sells to restaurants, at a farm stand, and at farmers’ markets.
Chang balances farming with a full-time career in IT. He co-founded the Southern New England Farmers of Color Collaborative and has been active in other local farming organizations, including CT NOFA and the New Connecticut Farmer Alliance.
Hodges Family Farm
In 2015, Army veteran Anthony Hodges purchased an 1899 farmhouse on the outskirts of Waterbury. His original goal was to renovate the property as a way of dealing with his PTSD. Family members pitched in on the project, and then members of the community started helping to maintain the land every weekend.
Today, Hodges Family Farm is open to the public. Visitors are able to pick their own fruits and vegetables, purchase produce at a farmstand, or make day reservations to simply relax at the farm.
Micro2Life
Emmanuel Marte raised his first crop while he was working in Maryland and successfully grew a tomato plant at his apartment. He began experimenting with other crops, such as growing microgreens indoors, and learned more about agriculture through KNOX Hartford after returning to Connecticut.
In 2018, Marte established Micro2Life with Zania Johnson, whom he met while studying biology and nutritional science at the University of Connecticut. Micro2Life grows organic vegetables including hydroponically produced leafy greens, peppers, turnips, and some specialty crops such as Jamaican pumpkins.
The vegetables are sold to customers as well as schools and restaurants, and some are donated to food security programs. In 2022, Micro2Life supplied CT Foodshare with over 4,000 pounds of produce.
Johnson and Marte have actively worked to encourage people to learn more about where food comes from and to consider agriculture as a career. They have given presentations in schools, conducted urban farmer training programs, and led educational courses on hydroponics and growing microgreens.
Park City Harvest
Richard Myers recalls that his classmates sometimes asked him if his name was Shawn while he was studying horticulture at Naugatuck Community College. Eventually he met “the other Black kid in the program,” Shawn Joseph, and the seed of Park City Harvest was born.
The duo founded the company in 2018, currently specialize in microgreens grown in an indoor farm, and are also adding a hoop house and honeybees. In addition, they offer value-added products such as West Indian hot sauce, pickled jalapenos, dried herbs, olive oils, teas, and T-shirts dyed by the flowers and vegetables they grow.
Aware of the small share of Black farmers in agriculture, Park City Harvest operates under the slogan “Changing the Image of Farming.” The business aims to be a supplier of fresh, sustainable, culturally appropriate food in the Bridgeport area.
Myers and Harris say there is sometimes a negative stigma in the Black community that equates farming to slave work, but that they are working to portray agriculture as a means of financial freedom. Their outreach includes a new nonprofit, North Carver Foundation, to “educate, fund, and promote all farmers of color.” They also plan to publish a cookbook and a farming-themed children’s book.
“Having the opportunity to grow food for yourselves and your community and income is empowering,” they say.
Root Life
Dishuan Harris’s interest in farming began with a simple realization: while his ancestors had been able to work the land and provide for their families, he only knew how to buy his food.
Harris, a New Haven native, began volunteering with as many local agricultural organizations as he could. He was later hired as a farmer and educator with Common Ground High School in New Haven, then started his own business in 2016 with the goal of sharing the agricultural knowledge he had developed over his career.
Through Root Life, Harris (also known as Native Praxis, or Farmer D) raises organic produce such as berries, herbs, and microgreens. He farms on a selection of different community spaces, totaling about one-sixth of an acre in total.
“These grow spaces are unique because they are in the center of urban neighborhoods that currently deal with food apartheid (food deserts),” says Harris. “As a result, these grow spaces contribute more than just the production of organic produce; these spaces offer a place for the community to connect to each other and reconnect to natural spaces.”
Harris also sells vegan health and beauty products; and provides environmental consulting services on topics like edible landscaping, gardening, and farming. He plans to start selling value-added products made from locally grown and locally produced ingredients.
Harris continues to volunteer with numerous Connecticut urban agriculture groups, helping them in areas such as youth education and the startup and maintenance of community gardens. He has also established other organizations with the goal of promoting sustainability and food sovereignty, including Love Fed and Root Life Media.
Samad Gardens Initiative
Azeem Zakir Kareem remembers that it was a “culture shock” when he started working at Holcomb Farm in West Granby and saw the rows of vegetables. He says urban “food deserts” have led to a significant lack of awareness in Black populations about how their food is sourced.
Kareem had been invited to work at the farm by his wife Sarah Rose Kareem, then Holcomb Farm’s wholesale manager. In 2020, they started their own business, Samad Gardens Initiative, with the goal of inspiring and educating people of color to grow food for themselves and their communities.
Their Windsor Locks farm raises organic produce and medicinal herbs, which are sold at farmers’ markets and donated to organizations such as Connecticut Foodshare. Samad Garden Initiative also creates value-added products such as tea blends, and the Kareems offer numerous educational offerings on topics such as regenerative growing techniques and seed saving.
SEAmarron Farmstead
Liz Guerra and Hector “Freedom” Gerardo were dabbling in agriculture even when living in a Manhattan apartment, composting their food scraps on the fire escape. Shortly after they moved to Connecticut, the couple developed even more of an appreciation for locally sourced food due to the grocery shortages brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a way of promoting food sovereignty, Guerra and Gerardo established SEAmarron Farmstead on a 3.1-acre plot behind their Danbury home. They tend to a small but diverse farm operation that raises crops including vegetables, apples, and hemp. A small apiary is also on the site.
Both co-founders of SEAmarron Farmstead are involved with the New Connecticut Farmer Alliance. Gerardo has also founded the nonprofit companies E&G Community Builders and 1Freedom for All, both of which encourage people of color to address food insecurity in their communities.
To learn more about the Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s working groups to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in Connecticut agriculture, click here.
February 6 @ 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Are you interested in learning about urban farming? Join this mixer to learn about KNOX’s urban farming program and meet its farmers. Contact Ally at allyg@knoxhartford.org for more information.