ST. JOHNSVILLE, N.Y. — Frasier’s Sugar Shack is a longtime maple business owned and operated by Bruce and Bonnie Frasier. Located in St. Johnsville in Montgomery County, Bruce has been involved in the maple business since 1972 when he was a teenager.
Bruce said he got started in the maple industry when his grandparents got him some sap collecting buckets and told him, “Go try it.” He did and he and his father, Cy, did backyard sugaring for many years, at one point having as many as 200 maple buckets. In the late 1990s the Frasiers expanded their operation installing a tubing system. In 2003 a new sugarhouse was built on the property with a 3 ft. x 12 ft. evaporator and a little later vacuum pumps were installed. With this entire system in place for the past 20 years Bruce said they can “push out the syrup pretty good.”
Nowadays, Frasier’s Sugar Shack has around 3,500 taps and focuses on maple confections. They typically make maple candies and maple cream, as well as maple syrup. They have also in the past made maple coated peanuts, maple lollipops, and maple popcorn. In the summer months the Frasiers have 500 blueberry bushes and offer pick-your-own blueberries when they are in season.
Frasier’s Sugar Shack will be participating in this year’s Maple Weekends on March 18-19 and March 25-26. They will be offering boiling demonstrations if the weather allows and making maple confections. Bruce is also recently retired and is considering offering tours of the farm going forward. The Frasiers are looking forward to welcoming visitors to their sugarhouse as Bruce said, “Stop by and see us!”
To learn more about Frasier’s Sugar Shack, checkout their website at www.frasierssugarshack.com and the sugarhouse’s Facebook page for updates.
This year’s NYS Maple Weekends will be March 18-19 and 25-26. To find a producer near you to visit this maple season, check out the Upper Hudson Maple Producers Association website at https://www.
About the Upper Hudson Maple Producers Association: The Upper Hudson Maple Producers Association is a trade organization representing over 60 maple producers, including sugaring operations ranging from less than 100 taps to over 10,000. The group works together to raise consumer awareness of pure maple syrup made in the Upper Hudson Region – Columbia, Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties.
–Upper Hudson Maple Producers Association
