Some people save it to use on pancakes and waffles. Others, put maple syrup on macaroni and cheese, hotdogs and essentially anything that happens to grace the dinner table.
Laura Boyce / The Citizen
Rick Robinson, owner of Hi-Lo Acres in Red Creek, demonstrates how the filter paper fits into the machine. The syrup passes through the paper and then through tiny holes in the square metal piece to purify it for bottling. After filtration, Robinson said there is about a quarter inch of filtered “junk” left on the filter.
Rick Robinson, owner of Hi-Lo Acres in Red Creek, demonstrates how the filter paper fits into the machine. The syrup passes through the paper and then through tiny holes in the square metal piece to purify it for bottling. After filtration, Robinson said there is about a quarter inch of filtered “junk” left on the filter.
“The kids would drink it straight from the tap if they could,” said Naomi Robinson, who married into the maple syrup business. “They (the children) put it on everything.”
Rick and Naomi Robinson, owners of Hi-Lo Acres Maple Grove in Red Creek, inherited the 25-year-old family-owned business from Rick's family, and they know the ins, outs and everything in between about making fresh, pure maple syrup.
“We do not buy Aunt Jemima at the grocery store,” Naomi said. “I made that mistake once and will never do it again.”
The Finger Lakes region is a major producer of maple syrup due to the habitat it provides for the sugar maple tree, said Ronda Roaring, publisher of www.ilovethefingerlakes.com. The growing conditions actually have to do more with the soil and other factors than weather.
“It gets cold in Scotland, but they don't have sugar maples,” Roaring said. “We have this Northeast corridor from Ohio to Vermont that is the type of habitat that sugar maples like.”
Within the next couple of weeks, the Robinsons will begin their prime season for the production of maple syrup. Depending on the weather each season, they tap the sugar maple trees during the last week of February or the beginning of March.
“Even though it's below freezing outside, the sun is shining on the trunk of the trees,” Roaring said. “This makes the sap run as the trunk warms up. The sap starts flowing and is alive in the tree even though it looks dead during the winter.”
Deciding the right time to tap the trees, however, is just one step of the process. It takes hundreds of gallons of sap to create much less syrup - 40 to 45 gallons of sap produce just one gallon of syrup, depending on the sugar content.
So what happens to the excess 40-some gallons of sap?
The process begins each season with cleaning all the equipment to sterilize it in order to ready it for the syrup season, which will last until the sap turns light yellow around the end of March or beginning of April.
Once everything is clean, the Robinson's next step is tapping the 800 to 1,000 trees on their 275 acres on land.
“It takes a good two days to tap out and get it steady going,” explained Rick, acknowledging that a weekend is typically put aside for the job.
The tapping process consists of drilling no more than two taps into each tree at least six inches in any direction from a previous year's hole.
“When you pull the tap (at the end of the season) it creates a scar,” Rick said. “It just hurts the tree to use the same hole again.”
When the sap starts flowing freely, a vacuum pulls the sap through air-tight lines into a 500-gallon tank that sits amid the sugarbush - the name given to the group of trees.
A tractor then carries the tank back to the sugarhouse. Here, the sap enters a reverse osmosis machine that takes 40 to 50 percent of the water out of the sap before it gets boiled by a wood fire evaporator until it is 180 degrees.
The tree had stored water in its trunk during the fall, this is what turns into sap to feed the tree ensuring the buds will open come spring, Roaring said.
According to Rick, about 175 gallons of sap are processed in an hour. And from the woods to bottling, a day's run to make maple syrup takes approximately four hours.
Once the collected sap has been boiled down, it is run through filters before it heads to the bottling machine. Very finely crushed seashells are added to the syrup for the filtering process. The shells take the sugar sand out of the syrup and then the shells are pulled out in the filters, Naomi said.
“This is what creates a crystal clear product,” she said. The filters, thick pieces of paper, which are spaced out, let the syrup pass through and any “junk,” as Naomi puts it, is left behind. It next flows into the bottling tank and runs through one last large filter as a precaution.
The final result is pure maple syrup that goes straight into bottles, which are then stored on their sides to ensure they seal until cool.
Ta-dah, the final product is ready to pour atop a stack of pancakes - or, hotdogs, if one should prefer.
But there are different grades of syrup that should be considered before buying, and those depend on what point in the season the syrup is bottled. Whether dark or light, Rick said all the syrup has essentially the same sugar content. As the season progresses, the syrup becomes darker, which Naomi said is the best to cook with.
“The start of the season produces a very light, fancy syrup,” she said.
In the winter, the trees produce starches in the rut, Rick explained. When the tree thaws and the buds begin to swell come spring, the starches go to the leaves, accounting for the darker color of sap.
The temperature affects the sweetness of the syrup depending on the conversion of the sugars. While the content of sugar might be the same, Roaring said they may not taste the same because at different times throughout the one- to two-month season the sap, or “blood of the tree,” is doing something different for the tree.
“It's all in how the sugars are expressed in the sap,” Roaring said. “It's all chemistry.”
“Every tree does it,” Rick said. “But somehow the Indians discovered that you can get maple syrup from maple trees.”
The trees will continue forever, as Rick hopes his business will stay in the family with one of his children. The key is not necessarily planting new trees, but to promote what's there by keeping the woods clean.
Come April, the syrup season is over, and they will have likely created some 200 to 300 gallons of syrup before another weekend is dedicated to re-cleaning all the equipment and lines until next year.
Staff writer Laura Boyce can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 236 or at laura.boyce@lee.net
Grades of Syrup
€ Grade A Light Amber: Mild delicate flavor
€ Grade A Medium Amber: Fuller flavor
€ Gragde A Dark Amber: Strong maple flavor (best for cooking)
Purchase Maple Syrup
Hi-Lo Acres
Where: 4809 Reitz Road, Red Creek
For more: Call 594-2197
Pricing is as follows:
Gallon: $38
1/2 gallon: $20
Quart: $12
Pint: $6.50
Also visit:
Schoolyard Sugarbush
Where: 5967 Appletree Point Road, Moravia
For more: Call 567-9900
Burdick Sugar Bush
Where: 1095 Hencoop Road, Skaneateles
For more: Call 685-5501
Also visit www.ilovethefingerlakes.com/basics/agriculture-mapleproducts.htm for a complete listing of maple producers around central New York and maple syrup events
Rick and Naomi Robinson, owners of Hi-Lo Acres Maple Grove in Red Creek, inherited the 25-year-old family-owned business from Rick's family, and they know the ins, outs and everything in between about making fresh, pure maple syrup.
“We do not buy Aunt Jemima at the grocery store,” Naomi said. “I made that mistake once and will never do it again.”
The Finger Lakes region is a major producer of maple syrup due to the habitat it provides for the sugar maple tree, said Ronda Roaring, publisher of www.ilovethefingerlakes.com. The growing conditions actually have to do more with the soil and other factors than weather.
“It gets cold in Scotland, but they don't have sugar maples,” Roaring said. “We have this Northeast corridor from Ohio to Vermont that is the type of habitat that sugar maples like.”
Within the next couple of weeks, the Robinsons will begin their prime season for the production of maple syrup. Depending on the weather each season, they tap the sugar maple trees during the last week of February or the beginning of March.
“Even though it's below freezing outside, the sun is shining on the trunk of the trees,” Roaring said. “This makes the sap run as the trunk warms up. The sap starts flowing and is alive in the tree even though it looks dead during the winter.”
Deciding the right time to tap the trees, however, is just one step of the process. It takes hundreds of gallons of sap to create much less syrup - 40 to 45 gallons of sap produce just one gallon of syrup, depending on the sugar content.
So what happens to the excess 40-some gallons of sap?
The process begins each season with cleaning all the equipment to sterilize it in order to ready it for the syrup season, which will last until the sap turns light yellow around the end of March or beginning of April.
Once everything is clean, the Robinson's next step is tapping the 800 to 1,000 trees on their 275 acres on land.
“It takes a good two days to tap out and get it steady going,” explained Rick, acknowledging that a weekend is typically put aside for the job.
The tapping process consists of drilling no more than two taps into each tree at least six inches in any direction from a previous year's hole.
“When you pull the tap (at the end of the season) it creates a scar,” Rick said. “It just hurts the tree to use the same hole again.”
When the sap starts flowing freely, a vacuum pulls the sap through air-tight lines into a 500-gallon tank that sits amid the sugarbush - the name given to the group of trees.
A tractor then carries the tank back to the sugarhouse. Here, the sap enters a reverse osmosis machine that takes 40 to 50 percent of the water out of the sap before it gets boiled by a wood fire evaporator until it is 180 degrees.
The tree had stored water in its trunk during the fall, this is what turns into sap to feed the tree ensuring the buds will open come spring, Roaring said.
According to Rick, about 175 gallons of sap are processed in an hour. And from the woods to bottling, a day's run to make maple syrup takes approximately four hours.
Once the collected sap has been boiled down, it is run through filters before it heads to the bottling machine. Very finely crushed seashells are added to the syrup for the filtering process. The shells take the sugar sand out of the syrup and then the shells are pulled out in the filters, Naomi said.
“This is what creates a crystal clear product,” she said. The filters, thick pieces of paper, which are spaced out, let the syrup pass through and any “junk,” as Naomi puts it, is left behind. It next flows into the bottling tank and runs through one last large filter as a precaution.
The final result is pure maple syrup that goes straight into bottles, which are then stored on their sides to ensure they seal until cool.
Ta-dah, the final product is ready to pour atop a stack of pancakes - or, hotdogs, if one should prefer.
But there are different grades of syrup that should be considered before buying, and those depend on what point in the season the syrup is bottled. Whether dark or light, Rick said all the syrup has essentially the same sugar content. As the season progresses, the syrup becomes darker, which Naomi said is the best to cook with.
“The start of the season produces a very light, fancy syrup,” she said.
In the winter, the trees produce starches in the rut, Rick explained. When the tree thaws and the buds begin to swell come spring, the starches go to the leaves, accounting for the darker color of sap.
The temperature affects the sweetness of the syrup depending on the conversion of the sugars. While the content of sugar might be the same, Roaring said they may not taste the same because at different times throughout the one- to two-month season the sap, or “blood of the tree,” is doing something different for the tree.
“It's all in how the sugars are expressed in the sap,” Roaring said. “It's all chemistry.”
“Every tree does it,” Rick said. “But somehow the Indians discovered that you can get maple syrup from maple trees.”
The trees will continue forever, as Rick hopes his business will stay in the family with one of his children. The key is not necessarily planting new trees, but to promote what's there by keeping the woods clean.
Come April, the syrup season is over, and they will have likely created some 200 to 300 gallons of syrup before another weekend is dedicated to re-cleaning all the equipment and lines until next year.
Staff writer Laura Boyce can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 236 or at laura.boyce@lee.net
Grades of Syrup
€ Grade A Light Amber: Mild delicate flavor
€ Grade A Medium Amber: Fuller flavor
€ Gragde A Dark Amber: Strong maple flavor (best for cooking)
Purchase Maple Syrup
Hi-Lo Acres
Where: 4809 Reitz Road, Red Creek
For more: Call 594-2197
Pricing is as follows:
Gallon: $38
1/2 gallon: $20
Quart: $12
Pint: $6.50
Also visit:
Schoolyard Sugarbush
Where: 5967 Appletree Point Road, Moravia
For more: Call 567-9900
Burdick Sugar Bush
Where: 1095 Hencoop Road, Skaneateles
For more: Call 685-5501
Also visit www.ilovethefingerlakes.com/basics/agriculture-mapleproducts.htm for a complete listing of maple producers around central New York and maple syrup events