NH Fairs

[maple maniac65]

NHMPA members It's time to take your best maple syrup to a NH fair and enter it in the Carlisle competition. Let's actually maker it a competition and have some entries to be judged.

[hard maple]

You hear that MAPLE GUYS????

[Amber Gold]

I want to enter syrup in some of the local fairs, but I can't find any 2lb honey jars locally. Any ideas where I can find them? Thanks

[KenWP]

Buy some two pound honey jars and dump out the honey. I can get them here no problem at D&G they sell them. Now what I don't know is if you have to buy a whole case of them or not. I have one other place sells jars in small lots but have never seen honey jars there.

[NH Maplemaker]

Josh, I got nine at Bascoms, They will ship. They are also in most maple dealer catalogs! Jim L.

[3rdgen.maple]

Yep just like NH Maplemaker said Bascoms carries them for 1.40 each.

[Amber Gold]

Thanks guys. Trying to avoid paying shipping on it. Maybe I'll just use Ken's idea and just buy the honey, at least I get something for it then.

[tuckermtn]

Is there a list of the fairs that have syrup judging competitions? I know Sandwich has one, but not sure about other fairs and dates for entry, etc...

Also - Does Vickie Smith judge all of them?

thanks

[NH Maplemaker]

Eric, each county has a state fair! That is were the maple competition takes place. The Cornish fair is the state fair Sullivan county. The Haverhill fair is the state fair for Grafton County. Just go to www.nhfairs.com for a complete list. Jim L.

[michelle32]

Hey Josh,
Ben @ Bev Chadwick in Alton sell honey supplies. Im sure they can set you up with what you are looking for 875-3544.

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Keith. I'll give him a call. I was thinking of you last week...wondering how your syrup sales are going and if you were going to make the move to tubing w/ vac.

Jim, thanks for that post.

Josh

[Amber Gold]

Gave him a call. Sells them by the case...$12.75. Going to pick them up tomorrow. Thanks.

[Amber Gold]

Picked up the honey jars and found there's no seal on the lids. If I leave them in the freezer until the fair do I have to worry about them going bad at the fair? The Rochester fair wants the syrup the week before the fair and the fair is about a week long so the syrup will be unsealed for 2 weeks at room temp.

[3rdgen.maple]

Amber I wonder if one of the canning jar lids would fit or maybe the seal that goes in them would.

[michelle32]

Hi Josh Syrup sales going great at the Farmers Market. Just about sold out. Changing every thing over to tubing and vac. Bought a bb2 vac pump and got permission from the neighbor to tap his 48 acres. If you have the space for pallet wood. They have a ton of it right know.

[KenWP]

Josh do the jars not have a sort of plastic liner. If you pack those jars with hot syrup they should seal with the light plastic part contacting the top of the jar. I can jam and jelly with them all the time and they seal.

[Amber Gold]

Glad to hear it. Tubing will be much easier and with vac on those reds, watch out. How many taps are on those 48 acres? You're going to be doing a lot of boiling on that 2x6.

I was thinking of making a couple of trips over there for pallets...maybe getting 4 boxes. I need to get my tractor running first so I can take them off. It'd be nice to mix it in wiht the pine.

I hadn't thought of the canning lids...they are close to the same size. The honey jar lids have no seal, just the plastic cover. I don't think it'll seal like a real jar...at least not long term.

[KenWP]

Ah my honey jars have metal lids with a rubber coating around the inside edge for it to seal.

[maple maniac65]

I anyone is in the Littleton NH area stop at Mclures Honey and Maple. The 2lb honey jar is about 80 cents. If you want a free one come to the regional meeting in Lancaster this Febuary.

[Amber Gold]

Entered my syrup in the Rochester Fair. After I spent 20 min. buffing and polishing the honey jar the woman at the fair grabs the jar by the glass...
They typically get 4-5 entries so we'll see how it goes.

Deerfield fair is coming up and I'll be entering in that fair as well. Not sure how many entries they typically get. Also may enter in the Sandwich Fair as well.

[KenWP]

Back in Alberta I used to enter a bunch of different events in the local fair for the fun of it. I made jams and jellys a lot and a couple of other weird concoctions and usually got at least second place. The woman wondered about me. I got first place for a goffy picture of a wild hog I snuch up on nurseing her babise out in the bush. I would enter syrup around here if they had such things and see what happened. I even entered homemade soap one year and since there was only 2 entries I did okay. LOL

[red maples]

Josh, good luck at the fairs let us know how you do! Hopefully I will be going against you next year!!!;)

[Amber Gold]

The results are in for the Rochester Fair. 1st place. Not bad for my first year. Carlisle award here I come.

I was going to enter in the Deerfield Fair, but my wife spaced on the registration and didn't get it in on time.

Next possibility is the Sandwich Fair, but it's an 1.25-1.5 hours away...not sure if I feel like it. We'll see.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Sounds like congratulations are in order!!!!

[red maples]

Awe-some Josh. Good for you!!

[Amber Gold]

Thanks guys...much appreciated.

[Amber Gold]

The results are in for the Sandwich Fair. 4th place and I scored a 94/100...there must've been some pretty stiff competition.

I got 25/30 on density. Mine was 35.5 so I lost 5 pts. Can I correct this for the Carlisle Award? I wasn't sure if corrections can me made between the fair and Carlisle judging.
Flavor 34/35
Clarity 20/20
Package 15/15

Pretty happy with that. I'm not sure how many entries there were, but I guess by not knowing I don't know if I was 4th out of 4.

[tuckermtn]

Josh- I looked for your syrup in the display case, but must have missed it- we got a point off for having some sediment in the bottom, but after three tries we finally came home with a 2nd in light amber and 3 overall for carlisle...

my girls are now calling it our "award winning" maple syrup....

[Amber Gold]

The top 5 are allowed to enter their syrup on the Carlile competition, correct? Is the Rochester Fair one of the fairs on the Carlisle list?

[NH Maplemaker]

Josh, I'm pretty sure it's only the top three places!! The ribbon should say Carlisle on it. at the sullivan county fair ( Cornish fair) thats the way it's done anyway ! They told us at one of the NH Maple Producers anual meeting that all the state fairs were going to be doing things the same way. JimL.

[Amber Gold]

Well I guess I'm out of the running for the Carlisle competition. I found the rules from a previous post and it's only the top 3, which I'd have if the Rochester Fair was on the Carlisle scoring system. I asked them about it and they don't, but are looking into it for next year.

I guess I'll have to wait until next year.

[maple maniac65]

All the fairs are over for this year and the Carlisle Judging still has a few glitches in it. If there are any NH Maple Producers who entered in a NH fair that feels they were not judged by the rules correctly please let me know.

Bodie Peters
VP NHMPA