LAPEER COUNTY (WJRT) -
(03/12/13) - Signs of spring are showing up across Mid-Michigan.
From longer days to bouts of milder temperatures, the seasons are slowly
changing. Another indicator is when sugar maple trees start releasing their sap,
which can be processed into maple syrup.
While Vermont might come to mind when you're pouring it on your pancakes or
waffles, Michigan actually ranks seventh in the country in syrup production,
about 100,000 gallons each year. And collecting it is a process that can end
almost as quickly as it begins.
It's a sweet, sticky treat that begins out in the woods. Every spring, when
Mother Nature releases sap from sugar maple trees, large companies and smaller
producers, like Brad Elling, turn it into pure syrup.
"You drive a tap into the hole and that's how you collect it. It drips into a
bucket or tubing hooks up to it," said syrup maker Brad Elling. Elling is a
small-time maker of syrup, producing about 200 gallons a year, tapping sugar
maple trees on his 55 acres of land in Lapeer County's Elba Township.
It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of pure maple syrup.
Once the sap is collected, the action shifts indoors. "We bring it in here to
the tanks, where it's filtered, and then we put it in the evaporator and that
starts the boiling process," Elling said.
While water boils at 212 degrees, turning sap to syrup requires about seven
degrees more. "We take it, we pull it off in the bucket and we put it over in a
filter, canner, we filter everything to get the sediment out of it," Elling
said.
The end product is bottles of all natural flavoring that can even be used as
a substitute for sugar when baking. Last year, record warm weather during winter
and spring reduced Michigan's maple syrup production by nearly 50 percent,
according to the USDA. Elling thinks there's another reason as well - "2012 was
early. If you weren't ready for it, you missed it."
Heavy sap may run for less than two weeks, and that could have caught many
producers off-guard last year, when the sap ran heavier, earlier. The good news?
Colder weather leading into spring should lead to higher yields, as syrup makers
are more prepared.
