Journal - Spring 2004

March 1 - Tapping Day

We meet at the pendulum at 9:00 am to initiate the 2004 maple season.  Our tapping crew consisted of Br. Walter, John G, Kyhl Lyndgaard, Linda Mock, Gordy Brown, and me.  We arrived at the shack, loaded up the trailer with buckets and supplies and headed out into the woods.  Even though we took a short break at the reefer for lunch, by about 3:30 pm we placed about 600 taps trees.  Some of the trees were running reasonably well.  This year we decided to avoid using the snap on lids for the plastic pails – they are too difficult to use.  We used the metal lids which will hopefully work well.  -Stephen Saupe 

March 2 - Shack Set Up

John, Kyhl and I spent the morning at the shack setting up the stove, installing the chimney’s and then did a service run to fix some of the taps that were put out yesterday.  We needed to drill some additional holes in buckets to be able to hang them on the hook.  We also need to install some spiles that wasn’t done yesterday because we ran out of hooks or lids when out in the bush. -Stephen Saupe

Just before we dropped the cover over the stove and lowered the heavy stovepipes, I asked John to show me how the sap runs through the labyrinthine cooking pans. John pointed out the route through the various chambers and all the turns the sap makes as it fills the pan (the surface is not flat, rather it is made of channels which greatly increase the surface area for heating--so Br. Walter doesn't need to chop quite as many cords of firewood). In the final finishing section, the heavy syrup drains out, but the drain was backwards, meaning we had dropped the center pan in the wrong direction yesterday. If John hadn't explained the process, we likely would have had to invest a couple extra hours wrestling with the chimneys and hot stove. Furthermore, Steve and John reluctantly admitted how last year, the exact same thing had occurred--they were explaining the process to a rookie like me, and the final drain was in backwards.  -Kyhl Lyndgaard 

March 3 - New Bulk Tanks

This morning, Steve and I arrived at the Sugar Shack just in time to see Gary Pflueger place the new stainless steel bulk tanks on the hill above the Sugar Shack with a giant front end loader. John was already there helping Gary. The bulk tanks are where the sap is placed immediately prior to being cooked down into syrup, and replace the galvanized tanks used in past years. Gary was happy to receive the paddles that used to stir the milk once stored in the tanks, and I think he may turn them into weather vanes. As to the tanks, they were donated by area farmers. We spent several more hours today scrubbing them and cleaning the shack, with some help from Bob Ellenbecker.  -Kyhl Lyndgaard

March 5 - Barrels from the Brewery

Steve called the office today and we headed off to Cold Spring to pick up 55 gal. plastic barrels from Gluek Brewery. All week we had been worrying about how the old metal barrels would not work, but we still needed to collect the sap from the hundreds of buckets without having to carry each bucket to the tractor. After calling around all morning, Steve hit the jackpot at Gluek's. The price was right--free--and so with a goodwill quart of syrup in hand, the two of us drove out and picked up 11 barrels. We made a second trip and took another 7. These blue barrels had been used to ship concentrate for some kind of energy drink, and smelled extremely sweet, but we just dropped them off at the shack to worry about another day. The weather has been cool enough that we haven't yet collected any sap. -Kyhl Lyndgaard

March 9 - Barrel Modification and Sap Collecting

John spent the morning cutting the tops of the barrels off and improving the shack. I got out in time to wire the lids to the barrels and then we headed to the refectory to clean the barrels. We rinsed them three times. Still smelled sickly sweet. We added soap and rinsed another three times. By now, our clothes were wet and the smell was on us. But the barrels looked clean. After airing out for a couple days, we expect any residual sweet smells will be gone.

We also picked up the tanker and rinsed that out. As today was sunny and forty degrees, the sap was running strong. We picked up Steve and met Tom Kroll at the Sugar Shack, and emptied the buckets that were nearly overflowing with sap directly into the tanker. Those we didn't expect to fill by the end of the day, we left, as the forecast is for another cool down. The tanker was totally full by the time we returned to the shack, and we emptied it into a bulk tank. -Kyhl Lyndgaard

March 18 - Inspection Day

This morning we hosted a visit by a group of 5th graders from Discovery School (District 743) in St. Cloud.  The group had a grand time learning about tapping, cooking, and collecting sap from the field.  John & Steve were assisted by Marian ****, Jay Kasner, Nicole *****, and ******.  There was lots of ice in the buckets to be dumped because we had previously had a week or two of rather chilly weather.  By the time we were finished dumping the buckets there were many blocks of ice scattered through the woods - it looked like the buckets had fallen off the trees.  In the afternoon, we were visited by the Stearns County Environmental Health inspector, Mr. Hank Schreifels who inspected our operation.  We "passed" our inspection and can now brag that we are a "fully licensed operation."  Later that day we collected sap and were assisted by Brian Traut.

March 19 - Friday Forum

John Geissler and Steve Saupe gave a presentation today for the "Friday Forum" about our operation.  We met participants at the pendulum and then carpooled to the shack where we gave our visitors a tapping demonstration and shared a little about our operation.  This was followed by some might tasty maple syrup sundaes. 

March 20 - Collecting and Firing

We began about 10 am to collect sap.  We collected directly into the tanker.  We were assisted by Grace Brogan, Troy Foede and his son Ben. In addition, Mark and Christina Prom helped.  The temperature started off relatively mild but got progressively colder as the morning went on.  By noon, the tanker was covered in ice from sap that had spilled and the buckets all had a layer of slush and ice.   By 1:00 pm we had fired up the stove for the first time this year.  Mark and Christina continued to help and we were blessed with a steady stream of visitors (Kimball 4H, Roger Narloch family & friends) and volunteers including two students (Mike and Dan) from a Symposium class and Matt Johnson and his uncle (Doug Appelgren).  These guys helped haul wood and stoke the fire.  Amy Saupe lettered our snazzy new white board.   We were finished by about 6:45 pm and had drawn off about 12 gallons of sap that needs to be finished.

March 22 - Jug Washing

In the morning, John and Jay Kasner retrieved several dozen jugs from the apple cellar and then Steve and John ran them through the dishwasher in the kitchen.  We especially enjoyed navigating through the basement tunnels trying to get to the kitchen.

March 23 - Sap Collecting 

This morning, 58 kids from the St. John's Prep Middle School visited for a tour and also collected sap.  Then later in the afternoon, John, Kyhl and Marian Studer were joined by four student volunteers from Todd Butler's Symposium class who also helped collect.  Overall, we collected a tanker load of sap. 

March 24 - First Syrup of the Season

This was a beautiful day - mid 50's, sun shining and trees running (though not especially heavily).  Most buckets were less than 1/3rd full.  We collected about two tankers of sap in the afternoon and were assisted by Jenny Holtorf and Andy Audette.  Since we were worried about the sap spoiling if we tried to save it until our first festival, we decided to cook it down.  After a smoky start - Steve crammed too much wood into the firebox which prevented it from generating an adequate draft - we were able to finish off more than 10 gallons of syrup by the time we closed up at about 9:30 pm.  Considering that some of our early sap was somewhat yellow we were especially pleased with the beautiful light amber syrup we produced.  We also hosted a visit today by Dave Strand, one of the individuals who donated a bulk tank.  He was happy to see that we had put it to good use.

March 27 - Maple Syrup Festival, Part I

After several more unseasonably warm days, the sap was not running well for the festival. To make matters worse, today was not unseasonably warm--rather, it was cold and raining. At least Bill Mock and Bob Thielman had a good time cooking inside the shack! The Festival was a great success despite the rain. We enjoyed a surprisingly strong turnout of about 180 brave souls, and the festival went smoothly thanks to the help of more than a dozen volunteers who did everything from scoop ice cream to lead tours. The horse teams of Jeff and Sue Burg were especially impressive.