The Sweet Life
/
Dairy farmers are known for their hardworking lifestyle, innovative spirit and consistent effort to be good stewards of the land and caretakers of their animals. The Boxler family of Varysburg, N.Y., is no exception. In fact, the family has always been a step ahead by diversifying their operation to remain relevant while contributing to their local economy. The family encompasses and lives out these qualities — all in unique ways.
The Boxler family of Boxler Dairy Farm and Boxler Maple Farm is passionate about producing quality products, including fresh milk and pure maple syrup. For generations, they’ve meticulously cared for the land — land that has provided them with ample opportunity for their successful operations.
Tapping nearly 32,000 trees in a few different locations of woods during maple season and caring for 5,200 head of cattle year-round, the diversified farming operation keeps the Boxler family busy.
“Our family works hard every day to produce high-quality products we’re proud of,” says Nikki Boxler of Boxler Maple Farm. “We strive to make real maple syrup and dairy products a staple in every household.”
The Boxler family, including Nikki; her mom and dad, Ella and David; and brother, Warren, work tirelessly to produce a variety of certified-organic maple syrup products each maple season.
Walking the woods
Western New York, similar to other Northeastern states, is well known for its maple syrup production — a pantry and breakfast staple for all to enjoy. In fact, New York is fourth in maple syrup production behind Canada and its neighboring states of Vermont and Maine.
While most of us don’t put much thought into how the maple syrup on our pancakes, or the maple sweetener in baked goods, makes its way from the maple tree to store aisles — or our plates — it’s a unique, meticulously timed process that takes a lot of teamwork, planning and hours spent where it all begins — the woods.
What started as a hobby in the 1900s by Nikki’s great-grandfather, Joseph Boxler, the Boxler maple operation has come a long way from catching sap in buckets. Today, the operation is more efficient — and also more complex.
Stepping into the maple woods, you quickly become surrounded by a sky-high canopy of trees, providing a calming sense of protection above you, quietness from the outside world and of course, thousands of trees ready for sap collection.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in these woods. I truly know and understand them like the back of my hand,” says David Boxler.
Each year, the trees are prepared for maple season, which typically spans from mid-January through March. During this time, weather conditions are ideal for maple trees to produce sap. At night, temperatures dip well below freezing and warm up to above freezing during the day. These conditions encourage the sap to “run” during the day to be collected.
Preparing the trees means the woods are manually tapped each year. Tapping is a process where a hole is drilled into the tree and a spout is inserted to collect the sap. These taps are changed out every year to allow time for the tree to heal. So, while the season is relatively short due to the timeframe of ideal weather conditions needed for sap to be extracted from the trees at optimal sugar content levels, prepping the woods for the next maple season begins nearly immediately.
Sap is collected through a network of tubes. Drop lines, tubes where the sap flows, connect to the spout. These lines link to longer lateral lines, which lead the sap to the main lines through a vacuum process. From there, the sap makes its way to holding tanks, positioned in a few separate locations throughout the woods. Once the tanks are full, the Boxlers head to the woods to collect the sap in trucks.
Though the 175 miles of lines stay up year-round, it’s a family effort to manually walk the lines nearly every day throughout the maple season and also periodically throughout the year to check for damaged lines, whether from wild animals chewing holes in the lines or damage due to fallen trees.
The effort, time and miles walked means the Boxlers know these woods as if they were an extension of their own backyard.
Turning sap into syrup
Once the sap is collected from the trees, the Boxlers haul it to the sugar shanty, a nearby building with the proper equipment to process the sap.
Naturally, sap has a sugar content of about 2%. Once collected from the silos and holding tanks throughout the woods, the sap undergoes a reverse osmosis process where it then flows through an evaporator and gets cooked down and made into delicious maple syrup. The maple syrup then goes through a filter press to remove any outside particles, is graded and then bottled — primarily into 40-gallon drums — to be sold and ultimately make its way to grocery store shelves. All in all, it takes about 50–60 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of maple syrup.
The process is time-consuming and usually means Nikki, her brother and dad spend many late nights processing the sap into syrup.
“These are the times we will never get back, and I am truly blessed to be able to spend time working alongside my dad and brother,” Nikki says.
Some syrup is kept right on the farm, where it is bottled and sold locally and online with a Boxler Maple Farm label. From small, maple-leaf-shaped glass bottles to plastic gallon jugs of multiple varieties, the Boxlers find success in selling their product online and sharing with friends and family.
Plans for expansion
In 2019, the family broke ground on a new, much larger maple production facility less than two miles from the family dairy farm. The location of the new maple building will allow for easier transportation of the sap from the woods to the building — as a third of the woods will flow directly into the silos where it will be stored until the evaporator is fired up.
Taking what they learned from their past location, the family added more space, storage and processing capacity, along with a visually appealing building. These updates have been just a dream for the family until now and will be fully operational by the 2023 maple season.
Conveniently located right off highway 20A, the new maple building’s location is a prime spot to catch tourists making their way to Niagara Falls, located about an hour from the farm.
Finding success in diversification
A few miles down the road is the family dairy farm — Boxler Dairy Farm. The dairy, founded in 1935, has grown from a small, first-generation operation to a now third-generation farm milking 2,500 cows and farming 5,000 acres.
Here, the family is committed to sustainability, ensuring they continue to preserve the land for generations to come. On both operations, the family uses various sustainable agricultural practices that help ensure longevity and future success in dairy and maple production.
Utilizing space on their farm, as well as their herd size, the Boxlers have an anaerobic digester that holds a whopping 1.7 million gallons of manure. The digester converts the manure produced on the farm into renewable energy that is sold to their partnered renewable energy companies.
Along with the digester partnerships, they also work with a wind energy company to provide the land for several wind turbines.
Boxler Dairy Farm and Boxler Maple Farm are a true family partnership and daily endeavor to produce high-quality products for all to enjoy.