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FAMILY ACTIVITIES IN IOWA
Experiencing maple syrup time in Iowa
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A Guide For Newbies and Out-Of-Staters.
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A Guide For Newbies and Out-Of-Staters.
INDEPTHIowa
Come March, there aren’t many better places to spend a day outdoors than at Green’s Sugarbush near Castalia, in northeast Iowa. On a crisp early spring day, when the sap is rising, Green’s Sugarbush is busy with activity. The only commercial maple syrup operation in the state, Green’s is one of the state’s oldest businesses, in operation since 1851.
The fifth-generation farm, now owned by Dale and Karen Green, holds a record that’s hard to match: the syrup crews at the sugarbush have never missed a season since the first tree was tapped ten years before the start of the Civil War. Legend has it that American Indians tapped the trees before the arrival of white settlers.
Green’s Sugarbush is unique not only because of its longevity but because it has managed to maintain tradition. While most commercial operations have taken advantage of mechanical advances – vacuum assist pipelines, for instance, that gave sap automatically – the Green’s and their crew still use pails and a horse-drawn tank to gather the sap.
The Sugarbush isn’t exactly a secret in northeast Iowa: the Green’s have been featured in their share of
newspaper articles and have hosted school groups and scout troops who wanted to get a glimpse of maple syrup production.
The best time for the rest of us to attend is that last weekend in March and the first weekend in April, when the family hosts a giant pancake feed at their farm. The event started as a thank you to people who had purchased cattle from the Green’s in the past, but has evolved into a popular community celebration. In addition to pancakes and maple syrup, visitors are treated to a firsthand glimpse of how Iowa maple syrup is made. There are also horse drawn wagon rides and tours of syrup processing.
The start of Maple syrup season is dependent on the weather. Maple sap returns to its roots when the temperature falls below freezing each night and then rises when the weather warms on early-spring days. The maple season may last eight to 10 weeks, but sap flow is heaviest for about 10-20 days in the early spring.
Maple sap is thin, barely sweet and as colorless as spring water. The distinctive maple taste comes only through boiling. However, the sugar in the sap is a bit of a mystery. Each fall, the tree produces its own supply of starch to act as an anti-freeze for the roots in winter. With the melting of snow, water enters the roots and begins the circulation of 'sugar water' through the tree in preparation for the growing season. That causes the sap to run from the first spring thaw until the buds turn into leaves from mid-March until April.
The Greens’ trees are all more than a century old and the stand of maples has been near the Winneshiek and Allamakee county line since, well long before Winneshiek and Allamakee were counties. The grove of trees reseeds itself and none of the hard maples were actually planted by the family.
It takes a make at least 30 years for a maple to reach the 12 to 14-inch diameter necessary to allow the tree to be tapped. When the sap begins to run, more than 2,000 pails are hung in the thick grove of trees on the Greens’ farm. On a warm spring morning, standing in the silence of the trees, it is a special experience to stand silently and listen to the melody of the drip, drip, drip as sap drops into the buckets.
Once the sap is collected, it is poured into giant pots and slowly heated, then boiled, filtered, and canned. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make on gallon of pure maple syrup. The Greens cook down the sap in a sugar house on the edge of the woods, where the process is completed using a fire fueled by wood harvested on the farm. (Most commercial operations use propane flames.) The sap is boiled until it reaches a temperature of seven degrees above the boiling point of water. At peak efficiency, the Greens can convert 275 gallons of sap to six gallons of syrup per hour.
In addition to enjoying a hearty meal, visitors are treated to a firsthand glimpse of how Iowa maple syrup is made. There are also horse drawn wagon rides and tours of syrup processing.
The Indian Creek Nature Center, just south of Cedar Rapids,
Buckets are hung on maple trees.
• It takes 30-50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup
• Maple syrup is boiled even further to produce maple cream, maple sugar, and maple candy.
• It takes one gallon of maple syrup to produce eight pounds of maple candy or sugar
• A gallon of maple syrup weighs 11 pounds
• The sugar content of sap averages 2.5 percent; sugar content of maple syrup is at least 66 percent or more
• Usually a maple tree is at least 30 years old and 12 inches in diameter before it is tapped
• As the tree increases in diameter, more taps can be added - up to a maximum of four taps.
• Tapping does no permanent damage and only 10 percent of the sap is collected each year.
• Many maple trees have been tapped for 150 or more years.
• Each tap will yield an average of 10 gallons of sap per season, producing about one quart of syrup.
• The maple season may last eight to 10 weeks, but sap flow is heaviest for about 10-20 days in the early spring when it is warm in the day and cold overnight.
MAPLE SYRUP PRIMER:
offers demonstrations of maple syrup making throughout the month of March, including a maple syrup festival which began in 1983. Call (319) 362-0664 or visit http://www.indiancreeknaturecenter.org for information.
In Cedar Falls, the Hartman Reserve Nature Center's Annual Maple Syrup Festival features all-you-can-eat pancakes, visits to the Hartman Reserve sugarshack and demonstrations on making real maple syrup; from collecting the sap to boiling it down into syrup. Call (319) 277-2187 or visit http://www.co.black-hawk.ia.us/hartman/ for information.
Spectacular Botna Bend Park, just northeast of Hancock on U.S. Highway 59, has been tapping its stand of silver maple trees for a maple syrup festival since the early 1990s. Participants can drill their own tap and learn how the whole process of making real maple syrup begins. Call (712) 741-5465 or visit http://www.pottcounty.com/html/departments7b.shtml for information.