The TaplineSemiannual Newsletter of the Indiana Maple Syrup Association

Fall 2013

New York Maple Association President to Speak at Annual Meeting

New York sugar maker Eric Randall will speak about the biology of maple trees and the techniques for producing quality syrup during IMSA’s annual meeting set for Saturday, December 7 in Mt. Summitt, IN.

The latest information about IMSA is always available at the Indiana Maple Syrup Association’s web site.

http://www.indianamaplesyrup.org

Save This Date December 7 - Annual Meeting of the Indiana Maple Syrup Ass’n at Mt. Summit, IN

IMSA’s John Borkholder Will Also be Featured

Two unique presentations will be featured at the 2013 annual meeting of the Indiana Maple Syrup Association set to take place at Mt Summitt Christian Church Fellowship Hall on Saturday, December 7.

IMSA member John Borkholder from Wakarusa, IN will talk about Blowing Off Steam! as he describes his equipment that utilizes pressurized steam coils to evaporate sap.

While steam evaporation requires a sizeable investment in equipment and expertise to operate a boiler under pressure, the technique offers precise control at the end point for finished syrup.

This year we’re also pleased to hear from Dr. Eric Randall, a botanist and life-long New York maple syrup maker, who will talk on Where Does Sap Come From during the morning session.

“Most of us know how to make maple syrup and have a pretty good idea how to lay out a tubing system,” Randall commented, “but how many of know how the sap we harvest is manufactured by the tree? Where does it come from? Is sugary sap present only in March?”

“Why maple and not oak, ash, or beech?” Eric continues. “Are we ‘hurting’ our trees by tapping them?”

These are questions that visitors to our sugarhouses often ask, and Dr. Randall will address these and similar questions during his first session as he takes us on a tour into the anatomy and physiol-ogy of our trees.

Dr. Randall’s afternoon session, titled A Guide for Syrup Production, will take the novice sugar-maker through all aspects necessary for a suc-cessful first or tenth season of syrup production. Topics include principles for selecting tappable trees, proper tapping methods for buckets and rudimentary tubing systems, as well as collec-tion, storage, and primary filtering of sap.

“I know it’s a great deal to cover in a session,” Dr. Randall noted, “but I do want to include comments on evaporator type, size and opera-tion along with finishing, storage, labeling and marketing of our syrup.”

Dr. Randall also has an assignment for those of us who will be at our annual meeting.

New York speaker (continued on p 3)

David Hamilton (2014) President, Central6025 N 100 ENew Castle, IN 47362(765) 836 4432dave@rutherfordsugarcamp.com

Phil Hanner (2013) At Large6500 N 825 WNorman, IN 47264(812) 995 3155pgh6500@gmail.com

Bill Owen (2014) Secretary, Northern0535 S 500 EAvilla, IN 46710(260) 636 2073bkowen60@gmail.com

Roy Childers (2014) Central3509 West River RdPeru, IN 46970(765) 472 2632pchilders_99@yahoo.com

Garry Sink (2015) V-President, Northern17430 Zubrick RoadRoanoke, IN 46783(260) 638 4919gnsink@yahoo.com

Florence Williams Director Emeritus1152 West Egg Farm RdRockville, IN 47872(765) 569 3704

Ron Burnett (2015) Treasurer, South9741 W Baseline RdParagon, IN 46166(765) 537 2375ronburnett88@gmail.com

Art Harris (2013) South99E CR 350NGreencastle, IN 46135765-653 5108aharris@link2000.net

Members of the Board of Directors of the Indiana Maple Syrup Association are elected for 3 yr terms at the IMSA’s annual meeting held the first Saturday of Decem-ber. Directors elect the officers of the association.

The Tapline is the semiannual newsletter for members of the Indiana Maple Syrup Association, Larry Yoder, editor, larryry@goshen.edu

President’s Column

Dave Hamilton, President, IMSA

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Keith Ruble (2015) At Large397 E Sutliff DrTerre Haute, IN 47802(812) 898 2315

Brent Tubbs (2013) At Large740 W 700 SHudson, IN 46747(260) 667 4141br.tubbs@hotmail.com

Keith Ruble serves as delegate on the North Americam Maple Syrup Council for the the Indiana Maple Syrup Association through 2015.

Officers and Directors of the Indiana Maple Syrup Association

Dave Hamilton, President of the Indiana Maple Syrup Association – photo L. Yoder

I have spent a great deal of time this past summer, assisted by my right hand man, Melvin Hawks, installing squirrel guard on much of my tub-ing system. The squirrel guard is a braided stainless steel wire that slips over the 5/16 ths tubing and is made by Greg Pripps of Butternut, Wisconsin. Hopefully all of those hours and dollars spent on this proj-ect will yield results this spring with less time spent repairing holes in the vacuum system.

In July Melvin and I traveled to north central Indiana and visited eight sugar camps. Eli Kuhns was our host as we visited the sugar camps of David Borkholder, John Borkholder, Wayne Borkholder, Norman Kauffman, Jerry Miller, John Miller, and Wilbur Miller as well as Eli’s. Three of the sugar houses were relatively new and very impressive.

Unfortunately one of the finest is setting silent due to the injury to David

Borkholder, who is showing some progress in his recovery.

Eli informed us that there were at least 25 sugar camps in a 10 mile radius of his house. We are very ap-preciative that the above mentioned sugar makers allowed us to snoop around their camps.

During the Indiana State Fair, IMSA lost one of its finest members in the passing of Don Jewell. Don served as a director and vice-president of IMSA for many years. He used his portable sawmill to saw the lumber from Garry

Sink’s woods that was used to remod-el the state fair sugar shack.

Don Jewell was a quiet man with many talents including the making of benches. I am fortunate to have one of the many maple benches that he gave away over the years. Louise Jewell served as our Public Relations person for many years as well. Don’s legacy will live on forever, and IMSA is a better organization because of the Jewells.

By the time this edition of the Tapline hits the printer my wife Carol and I, along with Keith and Susan Ruble will be joining the Michigan Association members on a chartered bus to the North American Maple Syrup Council Meeting. This year it is held in Moncton, New Brunswick, and we are glad to be traveling with the Michigan group.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our annual meeting on December 7th in Mt. Summit, at the Christian Church.

Our featured speakers will be IMSA member John Borkholder and New York sugar maker Dr. Eric Randall. Please return your registra-tion form in a timely manner so that we can prepare the appropriate number of meals for the Pearl Harbor Day event.

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He would like us to come with a 3x5 card that lists

1) the size of our current or intended sugar operation, 2) the number of taps in our sugaring operation, 3) the aver-age size (diameter) of the trees we tap, 4) whether we use buckets or tubing or both, and 5) the types and size of evaporation equipment we have in our sugar house. This will give him a quick introduction to Indiana maple syrup makers.

Dr. Eric Randall has a lifelong affilia-tion with many aspects of maple syrup industry. Raised on a western New York dairy/cash crops farm, he earned a BS Biology degree from State University of New York-Oswego in 1968 and a PhD in Botany from The Pennsylvania State University in 1973.

Following a 25 year tenure at SUNY College at Buffalo where he was Professor of Biology, Department Chair, Associate Dean and later Dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences, he accepted a position of Dean of the School of Science, Management and Technology at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

He retired from Edinboro in 2010 and expanded his family’s maple produc-tion to its present 3200-tap operation on two farms in Wyoming and Genesee Counties just east of Buffalo, NY.

They use two reverse osmosis ma-chines, a wet/dry vacuum system, a 30”x10 ft Leader Vortex evaporator with Max pans and an enhanced Steamaway system.

Most of their product is sold retail at the farm gate and in local shops, as well as consignments at regional and state fairs.

Dr. Randall is a member of a number of professional boards and associa-tions. He is a past president of the New York State Maple Producers Assn, and he currently serves as President of the Wyoming County Maple Producers, as well as being a New York delegate to both the International Maple Syrup Institute and the North American Maple Syrup Council.

STATE FAIR REPORT by Dave Hamilton

Once again IMSA members greeted visitors at the Hoosier Sugar Shack in Possum Holler in the Pioneer Village at the Indiana State Fair. Forty-seven different people volunteered their time to raise funds for our associa-tion. Income from the State Fair makes it possible to do the following: keep dues low, subsidize the meal and obtain top notch speakers at the annual meeting, send a delegate and alternate to the North American Maple Syrup Council meeting and provide maple related items to our members.

I was a little disappointed at the number of people who volunteered, but not at all disappointed at the efforts of those who sold syrup, gave out sam-ples and informed the public of the art of making maple syrup in Indiana. We gained a few new members as a result of our efforts. A special thanks goes to Art and Becky Harris for keeping our supply of confections well stocked and for bottling syrup as our supplies ran low those last few days.

We didn’t expect to see Sandy and Ned Ragan due to Sandy’s back surgery, but they showed up one day and worked all day long.

You can learn a lot at the fair by reading the T shirts of our customers. My favorite was worn by a math teacher and it read “THERE ARE THREE KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. THOSE WHO ARE GOOD AT MATH AND THOSE WHO AREN’T.”

Following is a list of those who helped our this year, and hopefully no one was missed.

Tony Basiewicz, Silas & Anna Beachler, Wayne Borkholder, Lyndon Borkholder, Owen Borkholder, Ron & Carroll Burnett, Roy & Pam Childers, Richard Cline, Leeann Evans, Zane Fisher, Jack Gaby, Dave & Carol Hamilton, Phil & Emmett Hanner, Art & Becky Harris, Kevin & Lisa Hart, Samantha Hart, Keith & Sharon Hawks, Melvin & Karann Hawks, Larry Hedrick, Norman Kauffman, Eli Kuhns, Joseph Mast, Mark & Donna Matthews, John Miller, Wilbur Miller, Bill & Kim Owen, Jerry & Dixie Pruitt, Ned & Sandy Ragan, John & Deloris Smith, Brent Tubbs, Faith Will, David & Irene Wirth, and Larry Yoder.

Mariah Dawn Huff, Indiana State Fair Queen, visits the IMSA Sugar Shack to sample some Indiana maple syrup. – photo P. Childers

New York speaker (continued from p 1)

Photo – L. Moshier

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Photo Highlights from the 2013 Indiana State Fair

Photos – L. Moshier

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Leukemia Claims Life of Don Jewell

Don Jewell, a long time member of the Indiana Maple Syrup Association, died August 7, 2013 after having been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in early February.

Don and his wife, Louise, lived in Warren County for 38 of their 53 years of marriage.

As Louise recalls, “We enjoyed working, playing, relaxing together and spoiling each other, and we did a lot of all that!”

“It was a constant surprise that our 58 wooded acres along Pine Creek could be so much work and so much fun,” Louise recalls. “We both loved being out in the woods during all the seasons. Each has it’s own beauty and attractions.”

Of course winter and woods meant maple syrup. Don and Louise first made syrup using gallon food cans hung from wire on a nailwith a tin spile driven into the tree.

“We tried cooking it down in the kitchen,” Louise mused. “It didn’t take long to realize that was NOT a good idea!”

Louise recalls that she and Don seemingly tried every way possible

to collect sap and cook it down into syrup.

“Some of those ideas were not too bad and others were just embarrass-ing,” Louise laughed.

They finally bought a used evapora-tor from Don Dodd and installed it in an old shed down in the woods. Five gallon lidded buckets with food grade white tubing running from the bucket to a spile in the tree worked very well for a long time. They would switch out the buckets and haul them to the evaporator on a golf cart or in the Kubota scoop if it was really muddy.

Don’s next innovation was to run tubing from the trees to white plastic barrels salvaged from the ice cream factory in Lafayette. He rigged a siphon system to deliver sap directly into the evaporator pan. That worked very well for many years.

Louise continues. “I will forever remember the hours of working hard, fast and furious together. ‘And the sights and smells and sounds from that shed during late winter and early spring, the steam rolling out of all the openings, the fire crackling; and, of course, the aroma of maple mixed with wood smoke. Most of all I will forever remember the hours of our just sitting and enjoying the experience and each other.”

Don was a member of IMSA’s Board of Directors for several years. During that time he served several terms as vice president and he represented Indiana as a delegate to the North American Maple Syrup Council.

Don enjoyed the programs and interaction with fellow Hoosier syrup makers at our Indiana meetings. Likewise, he enjoyed working together with IMSA members on anything that needed doing like canning day or set-up for the state fair.

Don took early retirement from Eli Lilly in Lafayette after some 30 years with the firm. He continued to be ac-tive in church and civic groups, but as with the IMSA, he was happiest if he could be working in the background.

At home Don was an innovator. Wood burning systems heated the Jewell house and shop and supplied all the hot water. That meant a lot of cutting and splitting firewood.

For ten years Don made and used biodiesel in his tractors, mowers, and automobile. Don and Louise drove about 200,000 miles at a cost of one dollar per gallon and they averaged about 40 mpg. He even tried using biodiesel in his duel fuel classic boiler with mixed results.

Louise summed up her experiences in these recent months with a quote from Dr. Seuss: “Do not cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

“I’m working on that,” Louise mused.

Indeed. We all have work to do when we lose that which is cherished.

Don Jewell (left) visits with Dave Hamilton, IMSA President during the �010 Indi-ana State Fair. Don served as an IMSA of-ficer for several terms as well as Indiana delegate to the national meetings. – photo L. Jewell

Don and Louise Jewell share a moment in their Warren County woodland. Don succumbed to leukemia this summer. Louise served as IMSA’s Public Relations Director until Don’s illness required both of them to retire from their roles in the IMSA. – photo L. Jewell

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Hamilton and Hawks Visit Northern Indiana Sugar Camps

In July, IMSA member Eli Kuhns hosted Dave Hamilton and Melvin Hawks for a tour of sugar camps in the Amish Community near Nappanee. By Eli’s count, there are about 25 sugar camps within a 10 mile radius of his camp on 1st Road, Nappanee. It is estimated that these sugaring opera-tions produced between eight and nine thousand gallons of pure maple syrup in 2013.

Following is Dave Hamilton’s report about the visits.

All of the camps that we visited fired with wood, and most had an evapora-tor equipped with a Steamaway. A few had forced draft. The use of filter presses and finishing pans was stan-dard as well.

Most producers who were visited used buckets, but there is some use of bags, and a few have tubing.

The visits began at Eli Kuhns’s sug-ar house. Eli has 2200 taps on tubing that he takes down each season, but some main lines are buried. He has a 4 x 12 ft evaporator that evaporates about 200 gallons of sap per hour. Eli collects the hot water from his steam away unit and circulates it through his water-jacketed canning unit. He does not have a reverse osmosis machine.

John Borkholder’s sugar house is a converted sawmill with a boiler that generates steam that he uses to boil sap from about 700 taps. John’s family has always used this method to

make syrup. We’ll hear more about this set-up when John gives his talk at the annual meeting.

Wilbur Miller taps 400 – 500 trees that are mostly on buckets with some tubing as well. He uses a max flue pan and a Steamaway.

Wilbur was unable to be at his camp when we visited, so we’re a bit short on details. Had he been present, we would have lots to write about the Miller camp.

Only buckets are used at Norman Kauffman’s sugaring operation that features 1400 taps and a 30 in x 10 ft evaporator. A unique feature is Norm’s 5 acres of soft maples planted in 2000. They are already large enough for him to tap beginning in 2012.

John Miller taps 500 trees and he also uses a 30 in x 10 ft evaporator equipped with a Steamaway . John had a record year this past season. John’s sawmill business provides plenty of firewood for his evaporator.

Wayne Borkholder is set up in a rel-atively new and spacious sugar house where he operates a Sunrise evapora-tor equipped with a Steamaway and forced draft. Wayne’s sawmill pro-vides the fuel wood for his 950 taps comprised of 600 buckets and 350 bags.

Jerry Miller is a beginning sugar maker with a very nice, new sugar house. Jerry plans to install a new evaporator for his 300 trees in time for next season. He has an evaporator for sale that was used one season.

David Borkholder has 1400 taps for a 40 in X 14 ft evaporator that uses forced air. David has a large and fairly new sugar house that is idle at the moment because of the farm ac-cident that David suffered last year. However, David’s neighbors, Wilbur Kuhns and John Borkholder boiled his sap, and David’s nephews helped with the gathering. We all hope that this very nice sugar house will soon be full of steam, good smells, and warm fellowship.

Eli Kuhns Sugar House – photo M. Hawks

Wilbur Miller Sugar House – photo M. Hawks

Norman Kauffman Sugar House – photo M. Hawks

Jerry Miller Sugar House – photo M. Hawks

David Borkholder Sugar House – photo M. Hawks

Soft Maple Trees at the Norman Kauffman Sugar Camp. These trees were planted in �000 and are now large enough to tap. – photo M. Hawks Sugar House Visits (continued on p 8)

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Because maple syrup and maple products are categorized as processed foods, they are treated differently than agricultural products such as corn, hay, soybeans or even fresh fruits and vegetables. Unprocessed maple sap would be considered an agricultural product.

Hoosier maple producers are familiar with this difference in the form of the inspection guidelines that were formulated by the Indiana State Department of Health in consulta-tion with the IMSA. More recently, legislation provides for an alternative that does not require inspection if a maple producer chooses to operate as a home based vendor. Syrup so produced must be labeled as a home based product.

Further, there is an on-going discus-sion about whether small syrup pro-ducers are required to register with the Federal Food and Drug Administration as a producer of a processed food.

Regardless of the category under which a producer chooses to operate, syrup makers who regularly sell syrup to retail customers should evaluate their risk associated with such sale if a customer were to claim that some form of harm or illness resulted from consumption of the producer’s syrup.

All human activity involves risk of one form or another. The presence of risk does not automatically mean that we don’t sell syrup or welcome visitors

to our sugar house. However, it does mean that we pay attention to minimiz-ing risk by employing practices that insure a safe product of high quality – practices we learn from research, consultation with experienced produc-ers, and the presentations by invited experts at our annual meetings.

We may also manage remaining risk through insurance, a mechanism whereby another party, for a fee, as-sumes the costs of risk that we do not wish to bear.

For example, our Indiana Maple Syrup Association manages its risks with a commercial policy that covers

both product liability and asso-ciation-sponsored events.

IMSA member Rebecca Harris and Treasurer Ron Burnett look after our associa-tion’s risk management.

“There are two main events for the IMSA – the Indiana State Fair and the association’s an-nual meeting,” Harris noted.

“The personal liability covers visitors who stop at the State Fair Sugar Shack as well as our IMSA volunteers who staff the booth. At the annual meeting it covers attendees, speakers, and the vendors.”

Each year the IMSA sells some 600 gallons of syrup at the Indiana State Fair to retail customers who visit the Sugar Shack.

Because maple syrup is a low risk food and we pay close attention to the safety and quality of the syrup that IMSA packages and sells at the fair, it is not very likely that syrup would be source of a claimed injury or illness.

Still, if a lawsuit were to be brought against IMSA, there are the costs of successfully defending such a lawsuit. Legal costs are part of the risk protec-tion afforded by a quality insurance program.

Product Liability and Risk Management for Maple Syrup

Product Liability (continued on p 8)

IMSA file photo

IMSA file photo

Individual producers who sell syrup and welcome visitors to their sugar house encounter the same situation that IMSA does – though perhaps on a smaller scale.

“As I did research about risk and insurance, I was told by one producer that their home insurance policy cov-ers them up to a certain point,” Harris continued.

“That is something everyone should check on with their own existing policy. It probably depends on how their policy is written and how much syrup and/or other products they produce and sell.”

An informal survey of producers indicates that those whose sugaring activity includes retail sales have at least farm or homeowner’s liability coverage.

Fewer have taken the next step to the higher cost commercial coverage that manages the risk associated with the sale of syrup and visitors to the sugar house or retail sales room.

As Rebecca Harris noted, the pru-dent retail syrup producer will discuss their operation with their insurance representative and then evaluate the associated costs of risk management.

Product Liability (continued from p 7)

The Wakarusa Sugar House is located in a woods with about 50 taps at the town’s edge. It is a popular stop for visitors during the Wakarusa Maple Festival held the third weekend in April as well as where some 800 to 1000 school children learn about making maple syrup in the course of about four days of programming in March.

The volunteer staff for the Wakarusa Sugar House includes Eli Kuhns, Norman Kauffman, David Miller and Wilbur Miller.

These men should be commended for making time each year to do this – especially when the sap could be running in their own sugar bushes.

Wakarusa Sugar House – photo M. Hawks

Melvin Hawks and I are indebt-ed to Eli Kuhns for serving as our host and guide, and we thank all the above-mentioned sugar mak-ers for welcoming us and opening their facilities to us.

Some of these producers are relatively new to making syrup, while others grew up helping out in their family’s sugar camp.

Regardless of the years of ex-perience, they were all enthusias-tic about maple and were looking forward to another season.

All of the camps we visited were getting their woodsheds filled up for another season.

This area of Indiana must have the most sugar makers per square mile of any place in the state – and maybe the nation! – Dave Hamilton

Sugar House Visits (continued from p 6)

T shirts and sweatshirts that identify you as an IMSA member and bear the Indiana Maple Syrup Association’s logo are available from your association.

Refer to IMSA’s web site and contact Ron Burnett or Brent Tubbs to place an order.

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Classified Ads

If you would like to inform IMSA members about maple-related items or products that you have for sale, we will be happy to include your notice in an issue of The Tapline when space is available.

Send such announcements to Larry Yoder, editor, 805 South Sev-enth St., Goshen, IN 46526.