Full Steam Ahead!

The days that the maple sap has been gathered are long work days for Sue and Bob. This part of the story shows step-by-step the long process of boiling down 2% sugar content sap into 67% sugar content pure maple syrup.

 

 Part Two, Dedication and Vigilance

 

 

When the Nelsons have enough sugar water gathered, it is time to fire up the wood-fueled evaporator and begin the long process of turning 2% sugar water into 67% sugar content maple syrup. The sugar water (sap) is held in two large holding tanks inside the cozy sugar house.  A clear hose drains the sap into the first chamber of the evaporator. From this step on, a careful eye has to be kept on the bubbling brew as sweet steam fills the room. 

 

 

Sue Nelson sits perched on a chair, always at the ready to skim off any residue that floats to the top.

 

 

 

 

 

Bob is kept busy feeding wood into the furnace. When the sap has boiled down enough, it flows into the second chamber for further reducing.  Now Sue has two areas to monitor; the sap in the finishing chamber could easily scorch, ruining the whole batch. When the sap bubbles too vigorously or too high, Sue drops in a small pat of butter to calm it down. 

 

 

The finishing chamber has a gage on the side. Bob’s chair is near this gage. When the needle points to the number seven on the gage, the sugar water has finally been reduced enough to be called “syrup”.  But the Nelson’s do not stop at this stage. For them, the “finishing” pan is really the middle step.

 

 

 

After draining the syrup from the finishing pan into a large stainless steel pot, Bob puts the pot on a propane burner for further boiling down because he likes nice, thick syrup. He says he wants his syrup to stick to his hotcakes, not run all over his plate. Now Sue has three things to keep her eye on. The syrup is almost done and at a critical stage. Before it can truly be called “syrup” by the Nelson’s standards, it has to register the hot test line  on a hydrometer, which is a special tool used for measuring the sugar content in the syrup.

 

 

Being careful not to burn her hands with the extremely hot syrup,  each time that Sue measures the syrup’s  consistency  she has to fill the hydrometer twice, the first time to heat the tool up so that the second reading is accurate.  The day that I spent with the Nelsons it took about fifteen minutes for the syrup to reach the Nelson’s standard.

 

Tomorrow wraps up our story about Sue and Bob's maple syrup production.

 

Marcheta *appreciative








Full-time Country Woman profile: Sue Nelson

Sue Nelson holds the first bottle of maple syrup
 made by her and her husband, Bob.

Sue Nelson of rural Galion owns and operates Nelsonstrail with her husband, Bob. The Nelsons make top quality maple syrup from their Sugar Maple trees and harvest honey from their many hives of honey bees.

 

Over the next few days I will run the story that I wrote about the Nelsons for The Galion Inquirer here on O.C.J. Follow along  to the Nelson's sugar bush and discover how they turn sugar water into tasty syrup. Caution: the process is not for the faint of heart...the Nelsons typical work day is 15+ hours! 

 

 

 

 

   Sweet steam rised from the Nelson's sugar house,

letting people know that maple syrup is being made.

The Season Begins

 

 We don’t normally think of winter as a time of harvest, but throughout the Northern states and Canada, a harvest that satisfies our sweet tooth is in full swing. It starts with a not-so-gentle tap. It ends a tasty treat. What is it? Why, maple syrup, of course. Here in Ohio the maple syrup season is going strong, thanks to cold nights and warmer daytime temperatures, which keeps the sap (also called “sugar water”) running in sugar maple trees. A grove of Sugar Maple trees is called a “sugar bush”.

 

What began as a leisure pursuit to make maple syrup for themselves, their family, and to give as gifts has turned into a hobby gone wild according to Bob Nelson, of Nelsonstrail Maple Products. Bob and his wife, Sue, turned their interest into a business in 2007 to defray the costs of the new, state-of-the-art evaporator that they purchased to help make the syruping process a little bit less labor intensive. On a cold, rainy day in late February,  I spent an afternoon with the Nelson’s as they boiled down their first run of the season, and believe me, even with fancy equipment, making maple syrup is about as labor intensive as it gets.

The Nelson’s new evaporator, a huge wood-fired appliance that boils the sugar water down into syrup, is made to handle up to 200 taps, and that is exactly how many Bob and Sue drill. Some of the Nelson’s trees can handle three taps and others only one, but most of the trees in the Nelson’s sugar bush have two taps.

 

 

Unlike pipe-lines or buckets that one normally sees when driving by a sugar bush, the Nelson’s use disposable dairy bags. Bob Nelson says that he feels the bags are the most sanitary way for him to collect sap, and it also saves the time that it takes to clean buckets.  Nelson cautions anyone who wants to tap a few trees on their own using old buckets to be very careful because lead was used to seal the seams in galvanized buckets. Newer buckets are safer, and also bucket liners can be purchased for older buckets.

 

Tune in tomorrow to read about what  happens after the maple sap has been collected.

 

Marcheta *serial scribbler