All farmers know how much of their livelihood is up to Mother Nature, and it's especially true for maple syrupers, who wait, prepare and anticipate each spring for the sap to run.
Just the right conditions must click into place for that arcane moment to happen when the nights are cold, the days are warm, and the blood of the trees stirs in preparation for the arrival of spring.
In mid-Michigan, that narrow window of opportunity usually happens in early March.
But it's more about what the woods tell you than the date on the calendar.
"The trees have to be above freezing during the day for the sap to flow," says Sue Stuver Battel, of Battel Syrup in Cass City. "We're pretty picky about the weather, but, we have to take what we can get. This business all depends on Mother Nature."
The Battels have been tapping maple trees since 1882, after emigrating from Europe through Ontario to their small farm, which has 10 acres of woods for sugaring. Mark and Diane Battel are the main operators of the farm, and their son Bob and his wife, Sue, help out with the maple syruping, along with their children.
Battel Syrup has about 425 trees tapped, and draws down 150 gallons of syrup yearly, or, 200 in a really good year.
They don't work on as massive of a scale as many large Michigan maple syrup producers, but do enough to sell through the year at farmer's markets and online.
"We have more people who would like to buy syrup than we have syrup to offer," she says.
This year's been good for syruping--at least, better than last year, when a too-warm spring kept Michigan maple tap buckets half-empty.
"This year's been decent," says Ron Rhynard, president of the Shepherd Sugar Bush. "It's got the makings of a good year."
A good year could mean as much as 2,100 gallons of syrup for the community-wide sugar bush.
In the little town of Shepherd, maple syrup is a tradition that goes back to the late 1950s, when town leaders were looking for a way to carry on the community spirit inspired by the town's centennial.
Rhynard says his father was one of those who began looking into maple syruping, with the hundreds of maple trees lining the streets.
"They were trimming trees, and noticed the sap flow," Rhynard says. "There was another local guy who knew how to make maple syrup, and he looked around and said, you've got enough maples to make a decent amount of maple syrup."
The Shepherd Sugar Bush started out with townspeople chipping in a tractor, some buckets, an evaporator to turn the sap into syrup. Today, there are 2,000 buckets and another thousand trees in a nearby wooded area on tubing lines to pull the sap down faster than the old way.
As much maple syrup as Shepherd makes, people buy, especially at the yearly Maple Syrup Festival. They welcome about 10,000 visitors each year to the town, which has just 1,500 residents. Among the draws are, naturally, maple syrup, an all-you-can-eat pancake and sausage breakfast--which also features fresh sausage made from a local hog slaughtered just for the occasion--and plenty of activities and shopping, as well as open houses and syruping demonstrations.
Another town tradition, the volunteer-manned festival, along with syrup sales year-round, brings in money, which, since the beginning, has gone to improving recreational opportunities in the town.
Over the years, that's meant the town has been able to buy land for a park and maintain it, build a swimming pool, support Little League teams for both boys and girls, and develop new sports fields. Most recently, maple syrup money bought more property on the north side of town that will be developed into soccer fields and other community spaces. Some of the plans for the new recreation complex include a senior center, and room for carnivals and tractor pulls.
"There are quite a few ideas as to what could go out there," says Rhynard.
If the success so far is any indication, the possibilities will keep growing--and it looks like that's the future for maple syruping statewide, as well.
According to a Michigan State University Extension Forestry Department report, maple syrup is one of the exceptional Michigan agricultural products for which there is no surplus.
"Demand far exceeds the available supply," writes Mel Koelling of MSU's Forestry Department. "The industry is not expanding, even though less than 1 percent of the potential resource is being used."
The Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival is the last weekend in April; this year, that's April 28 to 30. Stop by the town on US-127 between Alma and Mt. Pleasant for tractor pulls, vintage car and tractor shows, a 5k run, amusement rides, and as much maple syrup as you could want.
And you can always
email Shepherd Sugar Bush or
Battel Syrup to place an order or find out more. As with so many Michigan businesses, both syrupers are finding the Internet yet another way to connect with customers.
"With the local-food movement, people are getting more interested in where their food comes from and who is producing it," says Stuver Battel. "It just allows us to have that connection across the miles."
Kim Hoyum is a freelance writer based in the Upper Peninsula. She is a regular writer for several weekly and monthly publications and recently started her own travel blog. Hoyum is a graduate of Northern Michigan University where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in writing.Photo captions:
1 Sue Battel holds one of the finished bottles of maple syrup in front of her house in Caro.
2 Fifth generation maple syrup producer Bob Battel stands with his wife Sue and daughter Dori,5 , in front of their sugar shack in Caro.
3 Though the Battel's use modern tubing that collects sap from most of their trees, they still use a few old fashioned metal buckets for nostalgia.
4 Sue Battel walks down the road with daughter Dori toward the family's sugar shack in the middle of a stand of maple trees.
5 A few of their trees still have older spigots, rather than the moders plastic type.
Like what you're seeing here on Mid Michigan's Second Wave? Well, we'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment here,
email us, visit our
Facebook page or give us a shout out on
Twitter!