Maple Syrup Time at Angove's Farm
By KAREN DAVIS, Future of Ag Task Force Member
Photos by
Mark Davis, Future of Ag
Task Force Member
3/25/2010 On a drizzly March day, Rosemary
and Jack Angove sat inside their cozy farm kitchen looking out at a
white turkey pecking the door hoping to enter, chickens and turkeys
striding about the property and two family dogs investigating the
visitors indoors. The Angoves have been involved in the “hobby” of
maple syrup production since 1981. Jack is a current Pine Grove
township supervisor and pet kennel owner. Rosemary is a retired
elementary, public school teacher. The interview took place after a
nippy hour spent walking the “sugar bush” – a term for the area of a
woods with a high number of sugar maple trees.
Jack started out showing the conventional use of
galvanized buckets and metal spiles (spouts) inserted at various
levels of the trunks of the trees, then an intricate plastic tubing
system with plastic spiles and finally a new system of tubing which
has plastic spiles which inhibit the entry of bacteria which causes
the tree to begin to heal and thus close off the flow of sap.
Gravity is the main way the sap travels through the tubing. Electric
pumps are needed nearer to the sugar shack.
The tour continued to a large, white collection
tank connected by larger diameter tubing which led to the sugar
shack. A large store of wood was under cover in the entryway to the
shack. In the actual room the evaporator boils the sap into the
proper density (consistency) for syrup. 40 gallons of sap will
result in 1 delicious gallon of maple syrup ready for the pancakes,
waffles and basting of Easter hams.
Jack’s grandfather purchased this Akeley property
in 1923 and sap buckets were included in an inventory of the farm.
During World War II, when rationing of sugar took place, Grandfather
Angove worked on maple syrup production. Jack doesn’t remember any
maple sugaring going on when he was a child.
2010 was a poor year for maple syrup production
unlike 2009 which had a bumper crop of sap with ideal conditions of
rainy, below freezing nights and warm days. Low barometric pressure
helped as well. The Northeastern U.S. and Canada are the only places
in the world where maple syrup is produced. Jack indicated that
February 8th to April 15th is the window of opportunity on his farm
for ideal sap collection as a rule. This year he had about a quarter
of the average amount of syrup produced from Valentine’s Day to
March 20th .
The most difficult part of the job is the hard
physical labor required and the uncertainty of the yield each
season…the common fate of many farmers. The product itself is the
best part of all the work with a hope of a profit in the end.
Word of mouth and enjoyment of Angove syrup at the
annual Rotary/Boy Scout pancake dinner fundraiser result in
customers. Once an Angove syrup purchaser-- always a customer, fond
of Mother Nature’s spring delicacy.
