State Fair of West Virginia

West Virginia Maple Syrup Producers has a booth at the 2018 Fair in the Ag. Building, I helped a little Sunday and will be there all day Thursday making Maple cotton candy, 85% of the money made goes into are Association Treasury. We have had a presence at the Fair since the formation of the association. The last two years it evolved into selling instead of education, which has caused several members to sour towards that approach, I being one of them, hopefully we will address mine and others concern before next years fair.

Mark 220 Maple

I don't think you can educate without allowing the public to sample the product. You can't build an organization without money. Sounds like your doing what it best for the industry THANKS.

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Originally Posted by Haynes Forest Products

I don't think you can educate without allowing the public to sample the product. You can't build an organization without money. Sounds like your doing what it best for the industry THANKS.

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I agree, there is benefit to the industry to educate but probably more benefit having product in someone's pantry or kitchen table. Don't push it like a used car salesman but samples and booth shelves stocked should someone want to purchase can only help the industry footprint. How many of us have heard the comment 'now we don't use anything but real maple syrup'.

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Originally Posted by 220 maple

We have had a presence at the Fair since the formation of the association. The last two years it evolved into selling instead of education, which has caused several members to sour towards that approach, I being one of them, hopefully we will address mine and others concern before next years fair.

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It is certainly possible for education and sales to coexist. UVM PMRC is in Chittenden Co., VT. We work with the Chittenden Co. Maple Sugar Makers Association at their sugarhouse at the Champlain Valley Exposition. They provide us space and we provide all the display materials and staffing for the education booth. The rest of the building is dedicated to sales of maple-related items (syrup, maple creemees, candy, cream, cotton candy, coffee/donuts, etc.). The building is run entirely by volunteers and the funds garnered from this activity go into Promotion of pure maple and research.

Yes I agree we need sales, due to the great success of Maple Cotton Candy we will be adding somewhere between 2500 and 3000 dollars to our Association treasury, but the problem I see is we don't have the space in the Ag Annex to sell and educate at the same time, a lot of other products are being sold and the producers of those products are there handing out samples just like us. I worked Thursday all day, two of us manned the Cotton Candy Machine, shutdown around 5:30 had several bags ahead, cleaned up the machine at 6 pm, basically had one hour before building was locked for the evening, I had this young couple walk up estimated age 30 to 35, four young children in tow, Cabell County resident, own some land with Sugar Maples, plus has a brother that borders them with 200 acres also with Maples, knew very little about making maple syrup, with in 10 minutes they had a Maple catalog in hand and I explained if they was interested the equipment dealer for that company could come look at their land, they thanked me for sharing the info, I believe they will follow up, my point being if I'm busy making cotton candy I can't inter act with someone who might be the next new producer. Just saying!
Mark 220 Maple

I just ran across this thread.
I'm assuming real maple sugar is being used to make this cotton candy. Is it okay for me to ask how much maple sugar gets used and how much do people pay for this cotton candy?

The recipes I've heard use about 20-25% real maple and 75-80% white sugar for best results.

...to add to Dave's reply, a special head made for maple/white sugar mix works better as well.