Big-E

[802maple]

Any of you Traders going to or working the Big E this year at your state association maple booths. I am headed down tomorrow at 10 am and staying there thru the whole fair and 2 days beyond. When I get done i will be an official resident of Massachussetts I think. I will be stopping by the other states booths and you are more then welcome to stop by ours and say hi.

This is a good time to volunteer for your assoc and help promote maple even though you all know we still make the best LOL


Hope to see you there

Jerry

[maplwrks]

Mother Maplwrks and I will be heading down on Thursday after noon to work in the Vt. booth for the first week. I got my green card in the mail the other day---I've just got to beat feet for the border on the 26th! I too hope that some of the traders will stop by and see us! See ya there....

[Farmboy]

I'm going o be volenteering at mass maples booth on the 25th in the afternoon. I'm going to be there for 4-H the 18th, 25th, and the 30th through oct 3rd. I will have to stop in at he VT booth and say hi. On the 18th I'm going to be in the parade. The 25 I'm gong to be working at the 4-H apple booth and doing a presentation on the stage in the farmarama building and working at the mass maple booth and the last 4 days I'm going to be showing dairy goats. If your trying to get in or out on a day hen trafics insane go through agawam on route 57 and take it back to 91. It's a smother ride and there's usully less than a 1/4 of the trafic.

[softmaple]

ya the traffic gets insane. my full time job is over the bridge in agawam. so i take my bike to work.

[maplwrks]

I've been here at the Big E for about a week now and 802 Maple has been a slave drivin' SOB!! Here are some numbers of production thus far---We are chewing up 1 1/2 barrels of fancy syrup a day since last Thursday, making around 160 pounds of cream a day and the balance going in to candy. I think it is safe to say that we are making between 400-600 bags of cotton candy a day also. I haven't been able to get over to Mass Maple or New Hampshire Maple yet, but hopefully today.

[Farmboy]

I'll be at the mass maple booth on Saturday in the afternoon. I'll try to get over to the Vermont booth and meet you.

[802maple]

Apparently I wasn't to hard on you Mike, as you had time to be on here. LOL

Thanks Mike and Shelley for all of your help, Also thanks to Bucket and you can assure him that I am taking good care of Mrs. Bucket.

[ctjim]

i would have volunteered but my great state of ct doesn't really have an agriculture booth or maple booth, i think that people don't really think of agriculture when it comes to ct. i was there on sat and it was hot and packed had some samples from mass and vt. and got some sugar on snow, and the wife had to get some cotton candy from the vt producers.

[DaveB]

i would have volunteered but my great state of ct doesn't really have an agriculture booth or maple booth, i think that people don't really think of agriculture when it comes to ct. i was there on sat and it was hot and packed had some samples from mass and vt. and got some sugar on snow, and the wife had to get some cotton candy from the vt producers.

I think each states building is run by different departments and I think CT, like RI is run by the tourism/commerce departments. I do wish that we had an AG presence though.

What would really be great is if they had a New England maple syrup taste off but I don't think that we'll see one. I think everyone knows that CT makes the best maple syrup! :D

Jerry, I tried to stop by today but when I did, no one seem to know who you were. I asked for Jerry and they all seem to look at me like I had 8 heads. Sorry I missed you. I always like meeting fellow Traders.

Dave

[802maple]

Sorry about that Dave, yesterday afternoon was my time off. Unfortunately in the world of Vermont maple I am known by my nickname," Beanie". If you are back ask for me by that name and I am sure you will find me.

[Tapmealot]

just got back frome working the weekend shift there a few days ago. wow it was so impressive how much product sold! lots of fun!!

[maplwrks]

Was that you in the corner covered in cotton candy?? We did have a lot of fun down there the past week didn't we?

[Tapmealot]

haha well parts of the time i was covered in cotton candy but most of the the time i was selling syrup with you...im the maple king:)

[802maple]

Well I got home late last night from the Big_E and we and atleast from the reports New Hampshire and massachussetts had good years promoting syrup this year. For those that tried to hook up with me, I am sorry that was not possible, for the others that I did meet, it was good finally meeting you. Remember if you tried to find me by Jerry, the code word is "Beanie", even my wife has to think when they ask for me by my real name.

[Amber Gold]

Does anybody keep track of how much candy, cream, and syrup is sold by each state? From reading the thread, the numbers sound impressive.

[maplwrks]

I know I emptied 8 barrels of syrup while I was making candy and cream. These were 40 gallon barrels.For the week I was there, we made 160-180 lbs of cream a day, the balance went into candy.

[802maple]

In the Vermont booth we sold approx. 7800 bags of cotton candy, 800 jars of cream, 10,000 cream cones and 5800 lbs of candy that we made at the booth. We also sold 30 cases of lollipops and another 36 cases of drops made by Butternut. 680 gallons of syrup in various containers that we bottled. Plus other candy and products that we bought from several other vendors. If you include what Bob did from Maine, the New hampshire and Massachussetts Associations it is by far the largest maple promotion in the world in my opinion.

[Hurry Hill Farm]

Good discussion here!!

Question?

How did you make the sugar-on-snow in hot weather? I've tried with ice and am not satisfied with how it looks. Spotza is a southern PA verision and I am not crazy about how it looks either.

What are/is/how big the cream cones? We've talked about these for maple tours and would like some info and opinions.

Many thanks

Jan Woods
hurry hill farm in edinboro PA

[maplwrks]

The cream cones are very small --maybe 2" tall. We can get them at Hannafords stores here in VT. We fill them with maple cream and sell them for $1.50. As far as the sugar-on-snow, we have an ice chipper that you would see at the fairs for snow cones. We ordered a bunch of ice from the ice purveyor at the Big E for it. I think we cooked the syrup up to 234-235 degrees for the sugar-on-snow.

[802maple]

The cones are sample cups that hold 1 oz. of cream. It is imortant that the cream is very thick so that it stays on top and crowns up like a ice cream cone does.