We just had; as usual an Awesome time at the annual Open House at Grand Maple Farms (“GMF”). Yes, it is maple syrup season again! Grand Maple Farms is run by Justin Schur and his father Paul Schur in New Braintree Massachusetts. If the name Schur sounds familiar, well that’s because Justin is the cousin of my “Bro’s from another mother”: Nate a.k.a. The Nate-Man and Ben a.k.a Benavlai Schur.Each year we travel an hour from Our Farm Our Food in Connecticut to New Braintree Mass. Yes it is worth the drive. Locally here in Connecticut there are several maple syrup/sugar houses that produce very good syrup, however our picky kids are the judge. The syrup from GMF in Mass is the best and only maple syrup they will put on their hotcakes and waffles.
The next town over from us, Hebron has a really cool maple fest every year featuring maple syrup and related products. This year it happened to fall on the same day as the GMF open house. Now Hebron as I mentioned is the next town over; perhaps 10 minutes max from where we are located to the center of Hebron where the fest is held; yet we chose / choose to drive the 50 something miles – 1 hour drive so as not to miss the open house at GMF. TOTALLY WORTH IT!
Not only does GMF have maple syrup but they’ve added several value added products to their line up. Along with maple syrup, we picked up some maple sugar, maple coated nuts and maple candy. While we were there my wife and I enjoyed fresh brewed coffee and hot chocolate for my girls. Another very great addition this year was the fresh made-to-order apple fritters they served. Pour a little syrup on those, or like I did, spread maple cream on them and mmmm good!
Grand Maple Farms is another example of a family run operation featuring small batch high quality consumable products. We were lucky enough last year to have the opportunity to sit down with the father and son team for a recording session of the Our Farm Our Food® Show & Podcast. Keep checking back as once its edited we will upload it to OURFARMOURFOOD.COM.
GRAND MAPLE FARMS 727 MOORE ROAD NEW BRAINTREE, MA 01531
Thank you.
Randy V. Augustitus -Founding Curator Our Farm Our Food®