Dewings Educate Farm Show Guests on Maple Production

Members of the Dewing family sharing their knowledge of maple syrup production with visitors to the Pennsylvania Farm show this week included (above, from left) Braxton, Sally, Bryn, and Andy Dewing. Below, Andy Dewing extends his knowledge of the uses of maple sugar products extended beyond the Pennsylvania Maple Producers Council education table to the PA Farm Show’s Culinary Connection stage.

Story and photos by Rick Hiduk

(originally published in the Rocket-Courier)

For at least the last 12 years, members of the Dewing family of Orwell Township in Bradford County have been sharing their joy of producing maple sugar products on their Century Farm. Dewey Meadows Maple doesn’t sell products beyond their own property, which makes them the perfect candidates to educate the public on maple production as members of the Endless Mountains Maple Producers Association – one of six associations that are part of the Pennsylvania Maple Producers Council.

We sell all of our syrup there,” patriarch Andy Dewing said of their retail shop. “We don’t wholesale it out, except some very dark syrup that I wouldn’t want to put in a jug.” That dark syrup is, however, considered “commercial grade” and is favored by bakeries. The Dewings concentrate on a lighter table syrup, maple cream, crumb sugar, and maple mustard that Andy maintains is excellent on a ham. His grandchildren simple love dipping pretzels in it.

The Dewings, including matriarch Sally Dewing, have 17 grandchildren, most of whom have been active in the business at some time. “When the grandkids show up, it ceases to be ‘work’,” Andy maintains. As the youths grow, they take on more important tasks and even make themselves some money. “They are better at cleaning up the taps now, and they put that money toward family vacations.” The Dewings also have cattle, hay their own fields, and enjoy gardening. The involvement of the grandchildren gives them more time to get that other work done.

Maple production among family members actually goes back to Andy’s great grandfather George Fahnstock, who started the 500 acre farm as long ago as 1876. It was handed down over time through George’s son Albert Dewing and a great uncle George, who had no children, to Andy’s family by his father, Max Dewing.

The Dewings decided to advance the hobby they had perfected to a full-time business around 1979, selling off some timber to built the current sugar house. They currently have 25 acres of tapped “sugar bushes” that can produce as much as 750 gallons o syrup in a year. In 2024, however, the yield was less than half that. A near perfect balance of above and below freezing days is the recipe for success.

If we get too much warmth or two much cold, we have a shorter season,” Andy explained. “There are days that it only gets close to freezing, though, that the sap can run hard.”

His sons and grandchildren get excited as the season approaches. Their son, Matt, often calls from Towanda asking if the sap is running. Their son, Nate, has a house along the tree line above the farm. “As soon as he and his sons see steam (from the sugar shack), they want to come down,” said Andy.

The Pennsylvania Farm Show is early enough in the year to not get in the way of their operations. The Dewings relish their role as educators. “When people are asking questions, they are ready to learn,” Andy stated.

Sally often takes the role of explaining the process to adults of how the sap moves back and forth in the maple trees and eventually comes out as sap, while their grandchildren help visiting children trace and color a maple leaf. “If the parents ask, I like to tell them how the sap comes out clear like water and how we go through the process of removing the water from it to make syrup.”

The Pennsylvania Maple Producers Council stands are near the center of the Main Hall of the sprawling Farm Show Complex. The PA Farm Show runs through Saturday, Jan. 11.

Photo by Rick Hiduk

Bryn and Sally Dewing (left) work with six-year-old Willa and four-year-old Nettie Austin from Erie County to color stenciled maple leaves at the 109th Pennsylvania Farm Show. The girls were attending for the first time with their parents (not pictured) Pete and Amanda Austin, the latter of which wanted the girls o experience the Farm Show because she was there as a young adult with an entry to the Farm Show’s Blue Ribbon Apple Pie contest.

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