Syrup-making demos a sweet success

by Frank Lee

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The Carlsons know how to make the best of a sticky situation.

Tom Carlson and his wife, Shelly, along with daughter Addie and son Ben make maple syrup at Wildwood County Park next to Kraemer Lake in St. Joseph.

“My wife Shelly grew up on this farm,” Tom Carlson said during an open house April 2. “It was in their family since the ‘50s, and they’ve been making syrup here since the late ‘70s.”

Visitors learned how maple sap from trees at the county park is collected, processed, packaged and sold during the three-hour open house with tours and presentations by the Carlsons.

“We only make maple syrup during March and April,” Tom said. “But this year, we started in February because it was warmer. There is a finite amount of days the sap will flow and you can catch it and make syrup.”

The Wildwood Ranch maple syrup operation wasn’t the only maple syrup-related event that day; St. John’s University’s Maple Syrup Festival took place in nearby Collegeville.

“Maple flavor is a distinct flavor,” Tom said. “Artificial maple flavors are used in everything because they try to mimic that.”

It takes about 40 gallons of tree sap to make a gallon of maple syrup, and pure maple syrup is only made in certain parts of North America, according to the Minnesota Maple Syrup Producers’ Association.

“You can make a really light, delicate flavor that has maybe not much maple flavor,” Tom said. “And you can really make a dark, robust syrup that has a lot of maple flavor in it.”

Maple syrup is made in the spring when the temperature gets below freezing at night and above freezing during the day, according to the Minnesota Maple Syrup Producers’ Association.

“Besides a lot of work and a lot of dedication to what you are doing, you have to know what you are doing,” Tom  said. “And for really good quality maple syrup, you have to get the sap at the right time and don’t let it sit around and ferment. You have to cook it right away.”

He said there are about 1,100 trees hooked to a vacuum line at the Wildwood Ranch maple syrup operation in St. Joseph to extract sap and about 400 trees with buckets attached to collect the sap.

“It’s not easy,” Shelly said as she cooked the syrup and poured it into molds to harden as candy. “But it’s a labor of love, really, and it’s getting harder to do as we’re getting older. But part of it is just the family tradition of doing it, and I love showing people what it’s all about.”

Nothing is added to the sap to make maple syrup, which contains no colors, preservatives or additives; only water is evaporated away, according to the Minnesota Maple Syrup Producers’ Association.

“I always tell people one of my favorite things – one of the reasons why it makes it all worthwhile – is when we are cooking, boiling, evaporating and you go outside and get a downdraft of smoke and the sweet steam, when you get that smell, I wish I could bottle it,” she said.

Shelly said her family had sold the property to Stearns County in 2007, and there was an agreement the Carlsons would continue with their maple syrup operation, Wildwood Ranch.

“In exchange, we would provide tours and educate the public and maintain the equipment,” Shelly said.

Tom said there was more than 18,000 gallons of sap this year at Wildwood County Park next to Kraemer Lake – a record for them – and they’ve made 440 gallons of syrup this year.

“We had 25 batches this year,” he said. “Some are lighter, some are darker, depending upon the weather outside and how the sap is boiling … but the amount of sugar in each batch is the same.”

Addie Carlson is a College of St. Benedict senior majoring in environmental studies and music. The 21-year-old sits on the board of the St. Joseph Farmers’ Market, where the syrup is sold.

Jane Fark of St. Cloud was at the open house where Addie Carlson explained the syrup-making process in the sugar shack, which makes between 200 to 400 gallons annually.

“I came last year, so I kept my ears open for it this year because I like the setting and the syrup flavor was delicious,” Fark said.

According to the Minnesota Maple Syrup Producers’ Association, Minnesota is only one of 19 states in the nation where maple syrup is made.

“You really respect the work that goes into making it,” Fark said. “And you can see why they charge what they do for syrup because it’s really special.”

Group tours of the Wildwood Ranch maple syrup operation at Wildwood County Park in St. Joseph are available by appointment by calling 320-248-7784 or by emailing carlsonwildwoodranch@msn.com.