Maple King Cody Lynch loves being in the woods

SOMERSET TWP. ― At the end of the day, reigning Pennsylvania Maple King Cody Lynch of the Somerset area is a woodsman through and through.

That's why he enjoys being a part of his family's maple sugar camp called Baer Brothers Maple on Sugar Cake Road in Somerset Township, a heritage operation that changed ownership in 2009 when the Lynch family took over from neighbor and friend George Baer, who died March 31, 2023. Baer helped the Lynch family in the camp every year.

Baer Brothers Maple Camp was on the Baer farm beginning in the early 1900s as a source of syrup for personal consumption and trading. In 1971, the camp began to form into what it is today under the ownership of George and Bonnie Baer and their family.

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Unlike the Pennsylvania Maple Queen, who competes in a scholarship pageant with other princesses, the maple king comes directly from the maple industry and must enter maple products in a competition that is judged by a state agent at the Sugar Shack in Festival Park. A new king will be chosen on Thursday and the competition is sponsored by the Somerset County Maple Producers.

To enter for the king title, the exhibitor must designate nine of the 12 classes on which he wishes to be judged for the title when registering. Once selected, the maple king serves in that capacity for a one-year term and the chosen king customarily escorts the reigning Pennsylvania Maple Queen during the queen's contest the following year.

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"I've always enjoyed being in the outdoors and in the woods and was in the forestry program at the Tech School," said Lynch, a 2018 graduate of Somerset Area High School who also participated in 4-H national forestry. "After George Baer died last year, family and friends encouraged me to enter the king contest and we were surprised about the win because there is some tough competition there with other maple producers."

This is the first time Cody has served as maple king. He said he was pleased to bring that title home to their family camp at 234 Sugar Cake Road, Somerset. Cody and his parents, Mike and Sherry Lynch, and brother Regan, 20, have always worked closely together to make their camp and beef cattle farm a successful family operation.

Farming and sugaring

The Lynch dairy farm and the Baer dairy farm bordered one another. Mike Lynch always helped out at the Baer sugar camp even remembering taking his wagon back to the camp when he was in kindergarten. Those early roots of maple sugaring started a lifelong venture for the Lynch family from taking over the camp operation to working in the maple industry.

Both father and son, Mike and Cody Lynch, work for CDL USA, a Canadian maple equipment company with American offices based in St. Albans, Vermont.

Mike Lynch travels frequently throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan assisting in setting up monitoring systems that help monitor vacuum, tank sap levels and many other things that help producers improve efficiency. He also assists other store managers in the states he covers, as well as troubleshooting and assisting producers with equipment and wood layouts for tubing systems.

Meanwhile, Cody serves as the store manager for a CDL office in Somerset, where he orders supplies, invoices customers, ships orders and maintains day-to-day sales from the southern Pennsylvania store. And, when he is not working in the sugar camp or at his job for CDL, Cody Lynch likes to hunt coyotes and work on the family beef farm. He says being outdoors is just second nature to him.

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Sherry Lynch works at the Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Somerset and brother Regan is a student at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport.

"The maple industry is very complex and has become more about technology but everything goes back to the roots of the early farming operations," said Cody. "This past year, it has been a privilege to be the Pennsylvania Maple King because that title represents an agricultural heritage."

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Reigning maple king continues heritage sugaring operation