Pocahontas County Will Celebrate West Virginia Maple Days

Having heard a rumor that Pocahontas County will be holding its own Maple Day celebrations on two weekends later this winter, complete with maple pancakes on restaurant menus, and tours of the county’s two maple syrup producers, we talked with Cara Rose of the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau to learn more.

Cara, I understand that the Convention and Visitors Bureau is goung to promote West Virginia Maple Days this year as kind of a weekend getaway. Can you tell me what is going to happen there?

“We are, Tim, West Virginia Maple Days will be celebrated on Saturday, February 23^rd and Saturday, March 16^th this year” Cara said. “This is a program that’s been supported by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture for the past several years. And the West Virginia Maple Producers Association was really the fostering organization to promote this event. So we do have an agro-tourism program in Pocahontas County now, and it’s a combination of a variety of different programs, but it does include our maple syrup producers in the county –Frostmore Farms and Fort Warwick Farms. As part of the West Virginia Maple Days, they offer public tours on those two days, February 23^rd and March 16^th. We did this last year, and are doing it again this year as well with those two farms. This year the CVB has decided that in order to enhance the weekend and to encourage the overnight stays in Pocahontas County, we wanted to do a little bit more. So we have been encouraging our lodging partners to develop special Maple Day packaging. And also, we have been talking with local restaurants and encouraging them to develop special maple menus for those specific days. And we have several people who have demonstrated interest and are going to be participating in the programs on those two Saturdays.”

You mentioned that both Frostmore and Fort Warwick Farms are going to offer public tours.

“Visitors and residents are invited to go to those two farms” said Cara. Frostmore Farms is located on Route 92 between Dunmore and Frost. Fort Warwick Farm is located just South of Green Bank. There will be signs along the road directing folks to those locations. They are both open to the public from 10 (a.m.) to 4 (p.m.), offering tours whenever you stop by. They’re free, so there’s no cost involved, but it gives visitors and residents the opportunity to see how maple syrup is produced. And there will also be some maple product sales available. The Fort Warwick Farm Tour is more traditional, so Bob Sheets will be showing our guests how maple syrup was produced a hundred years ago. When you visit Frostmore Farms, they have implemented a more modern platform to produce maple syrup, and they will be sharing their technology with the visitor when they stop by. They should visit both of the farms to see how maple production has changed over the decades.  We’ll have information available on our Facebook page, so keep an eye out for that. We will be promoting the overnight stay packaging that our lodging partners are putting together. We will also be putting out information on all the restaurants that will be participating. And I will make note that we are asking our partners who are participating in West Virginia Maple Days and our weekend packaging that they source the maple products that they are including locally. So we do want them to support our local maple producers.”

Anything else?

“If anybody is interested in more details, and perhaps participation, they can give us a call at (304) 799-4636. And we’re looking forward to it.”