Maple Syrup Success: Insight to Smoky Lake Maple Products and Getting Started with Maple Syruping
By Denise Thornton
The Sugar Maple is an important timber species in Wisconsin, accounting for 13 percent of the state’s roundwood production — but in the coming months it will be more prized for its sap, and Wisconsin has more untapped maples than any other state. This presents a great opportunity for many landowners.
Based on a UW-Extension 2022 survey, the majority of the state’s maple syrup producers are hobbyists, and first-generation producers, syruping for fewer than 10 seasons. Most said they enjoy being in the forest and the harvesting. They also like it as a tradition and an opportunity to bond with their family or community.
The survey of 682 respondents also shows that most Wisconsin syrup producers rely on equipment producers for technical information, and outreach, according to Tony Johnson, Natural Resources Educator and Maple Syrup Project Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension. Fortunately, the nation’s largest maple syrup equipment supplier is in Wisconsin.
Smoky Lake Maple Products was created by Angela and Jim Schumacher and grew out of a childhood dream of Angela’s. “My whole life, I’ve really wanted to make maple syrup, but I grew up in Sheboygan, and we had one birch tree in our back yard,” says Angela. Her dream was fed by Flapjack Days every March at Maywood Environmental Park. “I always kept it in the back of my mind that someday I was going to tap trees.” When Angela met Jim and learned he had some land, she asked if he had maple trees there. “I think I do,” was the right answer!
“It was cool that we got into it together and developed a passion for making maple syrup,” says Angela. “Jim has an engineering mind, so he built all of our equipment and has been improving it every year. We realized we could help others with this awesome hobby. There was a big need in the market for quality hobby and professional equipment, and we filled it.”
One of My Wisconsin Woods’ main partners, The Aldo Leopold Foundation, is located in Baraboo. The Aldo Leopold Foundation is united by a shared passion for conservation and environmental stewardship. Their mission revolves around the fusion of time-honored wisdom and contemporary initiatives as they nurture a coexistence between humanity and the natural world. When someone supports The Aldo Leopold Foundation, they are also supporting My Wisconsin Woods.
“We share The Aldo Leopold Foundation’s goals to support land owners in caring for their land by building their confidence and providing timely information,” says Angela. “We want to make sure syrup producers know we are here and we want to get people out into the woods making maple syrup.”
While living and working in Wisconsin, Angela and Jim made their first maple syrup on land Jim owned near Iron River, Michigan on Smoky Lake Road. “It’s the American Dream story, “she said. “Like a lot of things, it started in a garage. Demand was so great that we grew naturally. First it was, ‘Hey Angela, would you mind parking your car in the driveway? I want to buy machines so we can build this equipment.’ And then, ‘We are going to wall off half our friend’s garage and start making equipment there too. He’s going to us.’ Soon we had five storage units, and it became crazy. We couldn’t have semi-trucks coming into our residential space or run back and forth between storage units. It was time to build a shop so we could all come together, work in one space, and invite customers to come see us.”
They sold their Michigan property to build a showroom in Hilbert, Wisconsin. Now they have eight acres of sugar bush — a forest stand rich in Sugar Maples — about half an hour south near the Kettle Moraine Northern Unit. Jim and Angela worked with the WDNR Forester Adam Zirbel, who identified invasive species and provided management information for their sugar bush. “Adam really helped us,” said Angela. “The DNR has the tools to understand which trees should be thinned to keep the rest healthy. We learned so much.”
Smoky Lake Maple Products now employs 14 people full time, where they work year-round. Hilbert has Appleton, Manitowoc, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, and Green Bay nearby, notes Angela, “so we pull talent from a really large pool. We collect sap, bring it up to our showroom, and invite people to come see while we are boiling. People see the steam coming out of our cupola, and they know they can stop in — which is fun.”
Innovations in collecting and boiling down maple syrup are always underway at Smoky Lake Maple Products. “We just released a brand new Flue Scraper tool for Evaporator Pans,” says Angela,“which might not sound like a big deal, but before now, the industry did not offer any good way to remove soot from the flues of pans. It’s always been, ‘Get a brush and a broom handle and figure it out for yourself.’ It’s important to remove soot because it blocks heat and impacts the pan’s boiling efficiency. Now maple producers will be able to keep their flues clear and maintain awesome boil rates all season.
“And we patented the Murphy Compensation Cup, which has completely revolutionized the way people use hydrometers to test the maple syrup density. It has really taken the tedium out of trying to read that instrument properly, and it has added accuracy. It’s been a game changer for a lot of producers, and it’s now being used in classes on how to properly test your density. We are really proud of that. There is so much more science behind making a high-quality maple syrup than most would realize. Every step can impact the product.”
For example, it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. The boiling time can be cut in half using reverse osmosis (RO). Many are familiar with RO for taking impurities out of water, but in making syrup, pumps push the sap against porous membranes, squeezing the smaller water molecules out, while keeping the sugars and healthy antioxidants. “There are many different solutions for each maple syrup-making challenge,” says Angela. “We love to help people find the right systems for their challenges.”
Smoky Lake Maple Products faces its own challenges. “Every year, we spend a lot of time and resources combatting scammers who have stolen our copyrighted photography, and misrepresent themselves with our registered trademarks. Buying maple equipment should be fun and exciting, but we advise syrup producers to establish a direct relationship with established, reputable manufacturers,” says Angela.
“Now,” she adds “is a good time to reach out to maple syrup equipment producers.” “The closer we get to the season, the busier we get. And if folks use the Aldo Leopold referral link when they purchase from our website, we will be sure to donate some of some of the revenue back to the Aldo Leopold Foundation. Win win win!” See the referral link and more information about it at the bottom of this article.
She remembers when she and Jim first started with 20 taps. Soon they were up to 850 taps and collecting buckets. “It took the entire family all day. I was so tired after a day of hauling it all out of the woods. As you get bigger, you connect all the trees with tubing, so the sap runs to a central location. Some producers add vacuum to the tubing, which puts an extra negative pressure on the tap hole to increase sap yield. This suction is not hard on the trees. They have so much love to give.”
Proper tapping each year will not injure a healthy tree. There are records of healthy Maples that have been producing sap for more than a century.
The time to collect sap in Wisconsin has traditionally been in March, but the season is starting earlier. According to ‘Central Time’ on Wisconsin Public Radio last year, syrup producers were already done by March 20. The best time to tap maple trees is when the nights are below freezing, but the days are warmer. That creates a freeze-thaw cycle of pressure inside the tree that lets sap rise to the treetops. Sweet!
If you purchase a product from Smoky Lake Maple Products through the link below, Smoky Lake will donate some of the proceeds of your sale to The Aldo Leopold Foundation: https://www.smokylakemaple.com/?wpam_id=67
To learn more, check out these helpful links:
The Maple Hour Step-step Guide to make your own maple syrup from the UW-Madison Maple Syrup Program and other helpful links.
Maple Sugaring: Tips for beginners and backyard Maple sugar producers
Cornell Maple Program Maple syrup production information for the general public, syrup producers of all skill levels and educators
University of Maine Cooperative Extension: Maple Syrup Production Practical expertise and resources based on university research to help both large-scale and small-scale maple syrup producers.
PennStateExtension Maple Syrup Information on collecting maple sap and producing maple syrup