The Official Argue About Where Upstate NY Is Thread

**Timberridge** · 03-23-2021, 07:08 AM

Thanks for all the suggestions.
After a day of crickets from from my wife regarding the dog, I got up the nerve last night to ask what's going on. Her reply was along the lines of "I asked if she could send pictures of the parents and I haven't heard back yet. I'm thinking I'll dispute the payment with Paypal."

Uh-oh.

Upstate 1, Greater NYC Metropolitan Region 0

Edit: How about "Hudson?"

**BmillsSkier** · 03-23-2021, 07:10 AM

Oh shit.

I feel like we barely got to know Onendoga.

**Timberridge** · 03-23-2021, 07:17 AM

Also, I asked over at the ECRC how sap season was going this year. No response there either.

Originally Posted by babybear

I think I mentioned my grandfather's sap expertise in another thread. I'm happy to fill in for him for he won't post here (RIP Pepère)
But maybe I'm DQ'd since I no longer live in the place where the sap flows like wine...

BB, don't take this the wrong way but the maple syrup biz has changed dramatically from the days of galvanized cans hung from the side of the tree and a wood fired sap house at the edge of a field.
Ralph, who used to tap the trees at the former Branch Covidian complex was running a mile of Tygon tubing to a pump house and then using a reverse osmosis filtration system to concentrate the sap prior to sending it into a low temp vacuum distillation process, and then finally finishing it off over a fire the traditional way to impart that smoky Vermontness to it.

**BmillsSkier** · 03-23-2021, 07:45 AM

Smoky Vermontness sounds like a cheese I would buy.

Or someone who’s out of their depths in the ECRC.

**Timberridge** · 03-23-2021, 07:55 AM

I wonder how it differs from a smoky Upstateness? I'm thinking that's more like the inside of a VFW hall bar on a rainy afternoon.

**BmillsSkier** · 03-23-2021, 08:02 AM

Originally Posted by Timberridge

I wonder how it differs from a smoky Upstateness? I'm thinking that's more like the inside of a VFW hall bar on a rainy afternoon.

That's almost exactly what I was thinking.

Stale, damp cigarette smoke with just a hint of even more stale Utica Club stuck on the floor that makes a velcro-like sound when you walk on it.

Mmmm, smoky.

**EWG** · 03-23-2021, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by BmillsSkier

That's almost exactly what I was thinking.

Stale, damp cigarette smoke with just a hint of even more stale Utica Club stuck on the floor that makes a velcro-like sound when you walk on it.

Mmmm, smoky.

As a teenager I once worked in a grocery store accepting and sorting bottle and can deposit returns. I know the smell of stale UC stuck to the floor, let me tell you.

I would buy that maple syrup for sure.

**huckbucket** · 03-23-2021, 08:31 AM

Originally Posted by Timberridge

Thanks for all the suggestions.
After a day of crickets from from my wife regarding the dog, I got up the nerve last night to ask what's going on. Her reply was along the lines of "I asked if she could send pictures of the parents and I haven't heard back yet. I'm thinking I'll dispute the payment with Paypal."

Uh-oh.

Upstate 1, Greater NYC Metropolitan Region 0

Edit: How about "Hudson?"

Check for the tarp. 10-1 it's blue ... or green.

**SoVT Joey** · 03-23-2021, 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by Timberridge

Also, I asked over at the ECRC how sap season was going this year. No response there either.

BB, don't take this the wrong way but the maple syrup biz has changed dramatically from the days of galvanized cans hung from the side of the tree and a wood fired sap house at the edge of a field.
Ralph, who used to tap the trees at the former Branch Covidian complex was running a mile of Tygon tubing to a pump house and then using a reverse osmosis filtration system to concentrate the sap prior to sending it into a low temp vacuum distillation process, and then finally finishing it off over a fire the traditional way to impart that smoky Vermontness to it.

My father does 3500 taps on tubing, vacuum, reverse osmosis and he is oil fired. A guy I was working for in Dorset does 10k. He has 110 miles of tubing.

**Timberridge** · 03-23-2021, 08:54 AM

Exactly. This no longer the quaint picture you see printed on the cans of syrup at Duttons.

**SoVT Joey** · 03-23-2021, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by Timberridge

Exactly. This no longer the quaint picture you see printed on the cans of syrup at Duttons.

There is a guy now from upstate(?), Poughkeepsie, crown maple. They bought in sandgate on the back of equinox mtn, they are at 125,000-130,000 taps there and they will have 300k+ total after this summer in Vermont and New York.

**Timberridge** · 03-23-2021, 09:04 AM

**babybear** · 03-23-2021, 09:33 AM

Originally Posted by Timberridge

Also, I asked over at the ECRC how sap season was going this year. No response there either.

BB, don't take this the wrong way but the maple syrup biz has changed dramatically from the days of galvanized cans hung from the side of the tree and a wood fired sap house at the edge of a field.
Ralph, who used to tap the trees at the former Branch Covidian complex was running a mile of Tygon tubing to a pump house and then using a reverse osmosis filtration system to concentrate the sap prior to sending it into a low temp vacuum distillation process, and then finally finishing it off over a fire the traditional way to impart that smoky Vermontness to it.

Originally Posted by Timberridge

Exactly. This no longer the quaint picture you see printed on the cans of syrup at Duttons.

I hear you. I moved before the state was taken over by NJ and the maple syrup cartel so I still picture the sugar shacks and operations of ye olde times.
I think I went to an outdoor party and made out in a sugar shack once in high school. but probably a common story in both VT and that state to the west of lake champlain

**BmillsSkier** · 03-23-2021, 09:36 AM

Damn it, I want to believe my organic maple syrup is made by an old timey process by a white haired man in buffalo plaid and overalls who spends his feee time whittlin’ things in his rocker on the porch.

While slamming some UCs.

**SoVT Joey** · 03-23-2021, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by BmillsSkier

Damn it, I want to believe my organic maple syrup is made by an old timey process by a white haired man in buffalo plaid and overalls who spends his feee time whittlin’ things in his rocker on the porch.

While slamming some UCs.

I’ve still yet to figure out the difference in organic and nonorganic pure maple syrup. I guess it’s the $60 license and the agreeable-ness to allow the state to stick their heads up your ass for nothing.

But we still wear plaid and my dad is definitely starting to gray...

**Peruvian** · 03-23-2021, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by Timberridge

Also, I asked over at the ECRC how sap season was going this year. No response there either.

Sap season. 🤣

What a joey!

**Peruvian** · 03-23-2021, 10:26 AM

Originally Posted by SoVT Joey

There is a guy now from upstate(?), Poughkeepsie, crown maple. They bought in sandgate on the back of equinox mtn, they are at 125,000-130,000 taps there and they will have 300k+ total after this summer in Vermont and New York.

I’ve been back on that land in Sandgate. That’s a serious operation. I originally figured it was Canadians!

**Peruvian** · 03-23-2021, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by BmillsSkier

Damn it, I want to believe my organic maple syrup is made by an old timey process by a white haired man in buffalo plaid and overalls who spends his feee time whittlin’ things in his rocker on the porch.

While slamming some UCs.

If the sap didn’t have eggs and hot dogs boiling in it, can it really be considered “real Vermont” maple syrup?

**Peruvian** · 03-23-2021, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by SoVT Joey

I’ve still yet to figure out the difference in organic and nonorganic pure maple syrup. I guess it’s the $60 license and the agreeable-ness to allow the state to stick their heads up your ass for nothing.

But we still wear plaid and my dad is definitely starting to gray...

See above. Depends on what the sugar maker had for lunch.

**SoVT Joey** · 03-23-2021, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by Peruvian

If the sap didn’t have eggs and hot dogs boiling in it, can it really be considered “real Vermont” maple syrup?

Driving home from Paul Smiths one weekend, we decided to stop at a road side sugarhouse in NY. I walked in and the guy had a piece of fatback in a old sock hanging above the syrup pan. Some of the best New York syrup I ever had, still no where as good as Vermont.

**BmillsSkier** · 03-23-2021, 10:49 AM

Great, now I'm hungry for maple infused pork products.

**SoVT Joey** · 03-23-2021, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by BmillsSkier

Great, now I'm hungry for maple infused pork products.

I bet some maple smoked Croghan bologna would be killer...

**Aldo** · 03-23-2021, 01:42 PM

I remember walking into a barn in wallingford to grab a few gallons 20 years ago.
It was a self serve situation. Walked in looked around - nobody in sight.
no worries - grabbed my jugs, left my cash. Out of the corner of my eye I see in the far room an old rickety chair next to a
rolling woodstove - very inviting - I looked around the corner hoping to catch the owner - nothing else in room except the stove , a chair and on the far wall around the corner I spy what at the time may have been the biggest nicest flat screen I'd ever seen. Got a real chuckle out of that one.

**Timberridge** · 03-23-2021, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by Aldo

I remember walking into a barn in wallingford to grab a few gallons 20 years ago.
It was a self serve situation. Walked in looked around - nobody in sight.
no worries - grabbed my jugs, left my cash. Out of the corner of my eye I see in the far room an old rickety chair next to a
rolling woodstove - very inviting - I looked around the corner hoping to catch the owner - nothing else in room except the stove , a chair and on the far wall around the corner I spy what at the time may have been the biggest nicest flat screen I'd ever seen. Got a real chuckle out of that one.

The old timey front was just for the tourists. The screen was the control panel for the the Honeywell DCS that controls the syrup manufacturing remotely from corporate HQ in Weehawken.