Just south of Cazenovia lies Critz Farms, a family-owned business that cultivates seasonal upstate New York staples. What Matthew Critz started as a small cut-your-own Christmas tree farm in 1985 has now become a multi-business 300-plus-acre property — one that director Juanita Critz said boasts more than 1,000 visitors on days like the Maple Syrup Celebration.

The annual festival runs through Sunday, where visitors can learn about the history and process of making maple syrup, tour the farm and taste different products. Critz and his wife, Juanita, produced their first batch of syrup in 2001 after the two had the idea to tap the maple trees on the farm.

“The real story is we were bored in March,” Critz joked, regarding the origins of the farm’s maple syrup production. Critz met Juanita in the early ‘90s, and the duo has worked together to add different crops over the years. 

When Critz first bought the farm, he said it was 110 acres with a house and a barn. The property has since expanded to more than 300 acres with 11 more buildings. Branching out into maple syrup production was good for business, Critz said, since it created steady jobs for more employees.

Critz Farms is a member of the New York State Maple Producers Association, which sponsors two New York State Maple Weekends each year. These celebrations wrapped up at the end of March, but Critz Farms added an additional weekend to its lineup.

As part of their Maple Syrup Celebration, Critz Farms is offering tractor rides through the maple syrup trees and a tour of the maple syrup-making process. Vivian Whitney | Contributing Writer

The state has the largest amount of tappable maple trees in the United States, according to the NYSMPA website. The Critzes said they joined NYSMPA as an opportunity to gain the organization’s educational and promotional resources and to promote New York’s maple syrup.

“We tend to be joiners,” Juanita said. “Both my husband and I have this entrepreneurial spirit.”

Juanita said a big part of the farm’s mission — especially during the Maple Syrup Celebration — is educating guests. Sitting in the farm’s rustic food hall on Sunday, where the all-you-can-eat-breakfast buffet is served, she reflected on how rewarding it is to teach guests the syrup-making process.

As a former teacher, Juanita said she loves being able to educate people about where their food comes from. One of her favorite parts is seeing families enjoy and participate in the festivities, sharing a little bit of the farm’s “paradise,” she said.

Despite expansion over the years, Critz Farms remains true to its roots. Critz still grows the cut-your-own Christmas trees he started the farm with and continually employs family members and locals.

“Everyone here is a jack of all trades and master of none,” said Christy Allen, Critz’s daughter-in-law.

Allen works the cash register at the farm and helps sell the maple products Critz Farms produces — maple popcorn, maple sugar candy, maple coffee and jugs of Critz Maple Syrup. Critz Farms also specializes in handcrafted hard ciders and beers, growing all their own hops for their alcoholic products.

Through events and various seasonal crops, the Critz family aims to continue trying new things, including hosting live music events with local bands.

“We’re such a busy multi-dimensional farm, so we’re trying to find our niche within each thing we do,” Allen said. “You can only survive with diversification.”

After nearly 35 years, Critz said he still loves what he does, and continues to do it with a smile on his face. Throughout the festival, Critz hosted tours around the facility.

“You’ve been on the tour before. You know what happens,” he joked with a returning visitor.

Amy Nakamura | Senior Design Editor

As visitors enter the main building, they’re right in the middle of maple syrup production. The farm makes their maple syrup in a small, wood-paneled sugarhouse warmed by the heat of a fire. A large, metal evaporator occupies the center of the room where one of their sugar makers tended the fire and the syrup tap.

“You guys can walk and look wherever you want,” Critz told a crowd of visitors on Sunday afternoon before discussing how maple syrup is made at the farm.

The maple trees are tapped on a continuous line that drips down to a storage container. Sap runs off when there are cold nights and warm days — the temperature change creates water pressure inside the tree that causes the sap to run off.

A single tree gives about 12 to 15 gallons of sap per year, Critz said, and the sap runs for about six weeks starting in February or March, depending on the weather.

That sap is collected and driven down to the sugarhouse where the syrup process begins. It’s then transported into a room where it undergoes reverse osmosis to remove 70% of the water content. After, it’s pumped into the evaporator where the rest of the water is boiled off as steam.

The whole syrup making process is all about removing the water from sap — the remaining concentrate is the maple syrup. Because of this, it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.

As a SUNY-ESF engineering graduate, Critz knows the ins and outs of the process and aims to make it clear to visitors by relating it to science class.

“When you get to high school chemistry, you’ll learn this and go, ‘Hey, I remember that,’” Critz joked with a child in the audience during the tour.

Barometric pressure and a hydrometer are used to tell what temperature the remaining syrup will run off at. When the evaporator reaches the indicated temperature, the tap is opened and syrup runs into a bucket where a hydrometer is used to see if the runoff is in fact syrup.

A large, metal evaporator occupies the center of the room where one of the sugar makers tends the fire and the syrup tap. Vivian Whitney | Contributing Writer

Amy Nakamura | Senior Design Editor

“It’s a continual process, not a batch,” Critz said. “All those things are existing at one time, and going on in this dynamic process.”

As maple syrup runs off, more sap is added to the evaporator in the same pan. Finally, the fresh maple syrup is run through a filtration process to make it clear and is then heated and bottled and off to the shelves.

Small, handheld jars line the window sill of the sugarhouse. Each jar is from a different batch of sap used to make syrup during the season, and each is a slightly different shade of golden brown. Critz holds up different jars to the light, explaining how to compare his syrup to the industry standard colors: light, amber and dark.

The different colors are caused by the temperature on the day the sap is produced: warmer days make sap that turns into darker syrup, while colder days lead to lighter syrup. The temperature creates different sugars in the sap that caramelize differently, which causes this color variation.

“It’s what Mother Nature’s giving me. Not anything I can do about it but enjoy it,” he said.

Published on April 2, 2019 at 12:35 am