John Blaich has lived on the Black River Ranch north of Poplar Bluff his entire life, utilizing its resources as much as possible while teaching others about conservation and the land management practices which have worked for him.
Now, he’s discovered a new resource on his farm.
In the early months of 2020, Blaich began a new adventure - tapping maple trees and making syrup.
“I had family in Indiana, and they always talked to me about making maple syrup,” Blaich recalled.
However, he wasn’t sure the process would work in this region.
“I was always under the opinion that was a northern thing, but I looked at my trees one day and thought, ‘I’ve got maple trees. I wonder if I can do it,’” he said.
So a little more than a year ago, he began researching the possibilities and tapped five trees on his farm.
“We collected enough sap to create about 2-1/2 quarts,” Blaich said of his first-year effort.
And from that moment, he was hooked.
“I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. It was so good,” Blaich said of his first effort at making maple syrup.
That first success set the stage for a stronger effort this winter.
But first, Blaich spent time last summer and fall marking more maple trees for possible tapping.
He also quickly realized the second-year effort would be a big undertaking.
“I knew I couldn’t do it by myself,” he said, so he enlisted the help of two friends — Dirk Smith and Clark Allen — along with his son-in-law, Aaron Aden, to help with all the work.
“They said, ‘Yeah we’ll do it,’ and boy we became a team,” Blaich said. “To do it right, one person just can’t do it.”
He also sought out help from others in the area who have experience tapping their own trees.
When conditions were right, just after the harsh spell of cold weather which hit the region in February, the team got to work.
“The cold temperatures below freezing, and then it gets above freezing, starts a pumping, cycling action, and man you’ll get a sap flow,” Blaich said. “This year, we hit it just right.”
Blaich and crew installed 25 taps, or spiles, in 19 maple trees on the farm just after the cold spell.
When installing the metal or plastic spiles, a small hole is drilled into the tree and the spile, which has a tapered section, is tapped in.
“When you tap the spile in, it expands out the wood because of its shape and seals it,” Blaich said.
A rubber hose then links the spile to a bucket, which collects the sap.
With ideal weather conditions, the first night was a huge success.
“It was real cold, and the very first night, we got 26 gallons,” Blaich said.
And the sap kept flowing.
“Some nights we were getting three gallons out of one tree,” Blaich said.
It’s a good thing, too, since it takes about 40 to 43 gallons of pure sap to make one gallon of finished syrup.
This year’s effort, Blaich said, resulted in about 140 gallons of sap collected and “just a little over three gallons of syrup” made.
When the crystal-clear sap was collected, it would be taken back to Blaich’s shop, where the crew would boil it for several hours.
“We had two 10-gallon pots and one 5-gallon pot boiling about twice a week,” Blaich said.
As each pot boiled down, more sap would be added.
“Once I get about 25 gallons into one 10-gallon pot, and I get it down to about two gallons, I’ll go ahead and start concentrating the sugar.
The boiling process, Blaich said, raises the sugar content of the sap, but it takes time - around eight hours to boil 25 gallons.
“Water boils at 212 degrees. Once your sugar content starts increasing through the boiling, the sugar stays behind,” Blaich explained.
“When it hits 219 degrees, we bring it inside the shop and watch that sugar content go from about 5% to 20 and 30. Then all of the sudden it’s at 50%,” Blaich said.
A refractometer is used to check the sugar content, and when the sap reaches between 66% and 68%, it is removed from the heat.
“Above 68%, it crystallizes. Below 66%, you can get a fungus in it,” Blaich said.
At that point, the syrup is filtered, bottled and refrigerated.
The final product has no extra ingredients added; it’s a pure, dark amber syrup.
“It just tastes like ‘wow,’” Blaich said. “It makes me wonder why the heck I didn’t do it 50 years ago.”
Looking back, Blaich said, this year’s tapping and syrup making effort was a learning experience, if not an expensive one.
“It’s fascinating to see how this is done and to do it ourselves in Southeast Missouri,” he said.
“I’m no pro,” he admitted. “Everything I’ve learned you can put under a matchbook. Was it a lucrative adventure? No, it’s expensive in time and propane.”
He estimates he went through nine large bottles of propane alone.
Still, for Blaich, it was all worth the effort.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun,” he said.
And, it was all done on the farm he grew up on.
Looking ahead to next year, Blaich said, he likely will expand his tapping to silver maples and possibly even a few walnut trees.