by Dennis Dalman
Spring is approaching, and it’s maple-syrup time once again at the Wildwood Ranch Maple Syrup facility in Wildwood County Park near Kraemer Lake, St. Joseph.
As happens every spring, the ever-popular free public tours of the maple-syrup production site will take place on Sunday, March 17 and Sunday, March 24 at the following times: noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.
The “Sugar Shack,” where each tour begins, is located at 29709 Kipper Road, St. Joseph.
To register for a tour, sign up online at the Stearns County Parks Recreation Catalog website. Go to https://secure.rec1.com/MN/Stearns-county-mn/catalog
Once at that site, log in, create an account, then click on the “Park Events Tab” and select “Maple Syrup Tours.” Choose your preferred date and time. Though the tours are free, you must complete all prompts through payment until you receive a tour pass.
Wildwood Ranch Maple Syrup is owned and operated by the Carlson family: Tom and Shelly and their children Ben and Addie. They have operated Wildwood since 1999 after Shelly’s father Wally Honer, who had operated the facility with help from his wife and children, died. Honer started the syrup-production site in 1979.
In an interview with the Newsleaders, Shelly Carlson shared some background about her family’s long-time involvement in making top-grade maple syrup. Last summer, the Carlsons’ maple syrup won “Best of Show” at the Minnesota State Fair, the second time it won that award. They won it in 2018, too.
Each spring, the family works together to make anywhere from 200 to 500 gallons of syrup, depending on how much sap the maple trees produce. The land with maples on it the Carlsons are able to use thanks to a contract with Wildwood County Park.
Besides their maple-syrup work, the Carlsons are plenty busy with their other jobs. Tom is a veterinarian in St. Joseph, Paynesville and Cold Spring. Shelly, though semi-retired, still helps with luncheons at St. John the Baptist Church in Collegeville. Son Ben works for the Nature Conservancy and daughter Addie is business manager at Backwards Bread Co. in St. Cloud.
The family markets their bottles of syrup mainly just in St. Joseph and the immediate area. They have also sold the syrup at local farmers’ markets.
Carlson talked about what visitors can expect during each hour-long tour. They will meet at the “Sugar Shack’ (where maple sap is boiled down), then proceed into the woods where they will learn interesting facts about the woods and tree identification. They’ll see and learn about different methods of tapping for collecting the maple sap from the trees. They’ll see the vacuum-tubing station, a pump station that sends the sap to the shack and a reverse osmosis process that removes a good amount of water from the sap before it is boiled-evaporated.
Visitors can then sample the syrup as they learn about its various grades and how the bottled syrup is marketed. The Carlsons order the bottles from a supplier in Wisconsin; they attach their own labels to the bottles once they have been filled and sealed.
Shelly said so far, they have produced about 280 gallons of syrup. She expects by end of syrup season that amount should be very close to 400 gallons.
These are jars and gallons of pure maple syrup made by the Carlson Family, who operate “Wildwood Ranch Maple Syrup” near Kraemer Lake by St. Joseph.
