MENOMINEE — It’s the talk of the tap.
Maple syrup production is happening a bit earlier this year, according to three local producers.
Ryan Thoune, a maple syrup hobbyist, tapped trees two weekends ago in Devil’s Creek in Menominee County.
“An old timer once told me never hang a bucket before St. Patrick’s Day,” said Thoune, who boils down gallons of maple sap into syrup with his brother and cousin each year.
However, with the unseasonably warmer temperatures hitting the area, it’s been easier to get out early and start collecting sap from the maples in the area.
Thoune has 107 trees filling bags with gallons of sweet sap and got 67 gallons of maple syrup last year.
“I was really trying to wait for another two weeks yet,” Thoune said.
He said the weather forecast is what ultimately changed his mind. That, and a little peer pressure.
“I know half a dozen people that have tapped already,” Thoune said. “We decided last minute.”
Trevor Wangerin, owner of HQ Maple in Wallace, said he’s got 316 trees tapped with his new vacuum tubing running to each tree, which sucks the sap out.
“This year and last year, we tapped early,” Wangerin said, who started selling his syrup online and at farmer’s markets in Menominee and Oconto last year.
He said he knows some people still waiting to tap in early March, which is typical. He hopes to get a little extra this season by starting earlier, which is one of the main benefits of getting ahead.
“I get really antsy, and I get worried, too, because I want to get the most maple syrup,” Wangerin said.
He said he hopes to get 200 to 300 gallons of syrup this year.
Ross Wagner, vice president of Wagner’s Sugar Hill, a family-owned business, said they have 100,000 trees tapped this year alone and hope to produce 3,200 gallons of the sweet stuff.
“We’re bigger, so we usually start the first of January,” Wagner said, referencing his family’s three sugar camps. He’s located in Ingalls.
His family sells maple syrup in grocery stores across Wisconsin, Chicago and the Upper Peninsula and also uses vacuum tubing lines.
The advantage of lines is that the taps don’t seal over naturally. When using the traditional method of tapping and allowing the sap to drip into buckets or bags, the holes can heal over within around five weeks. The holes might close up if people tap too early, Wagner said.
“If you were tapping buckets, you should wait until now or later in the season,” Wagner said.
Each of the operations stem from a family tradition, starting with a pioneering sensibility of the family patriarch — the grandfather.
With generations of experience, most advice these producers give is tips encouraging others to enter the late winter pastime. Wangerin said there are plenty of supplies in local hardware stores to get started on the hobby.
Thoune said that boiling the sap can take a long time.
“Don’t walk away from your cooker when you’re cooking,” he said. “If it gets too hot and cooks down too far, it’ll foam right over.”
It’s not too hard to pay attention, though, this time of year.
“There’s really nothing else to do,” Thoune said.
Wagner is happy to help out his dad, Charles Wagner, who owns the business, he said. He was fixing an exploded vacuum line, sitting on his four-wheeler and enjoying nature — it’s a perk of the job.
“Just get out in the woods and have fun.”
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