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Maple syrup is big business in Ohio

Locals fight against unpredictable seasons

Tribune Chronicle / R. Michael Semple With steam rising from the finisher, Dick Sutton of Kinsman checks the syrup during the process of boiling sap down to make maple syrup. Sutton is one of about 900 maple syrup producers in Ohio.

WARREN — Ohio has a long-standing romance with maple syrup.

Once the largest maple-producing state, the maple products industry continues to contribute about $5 million annually to the state’s economy with some 900 producers scattered around the state.

After their son was diagnosed with moderate Autism Spectrum Disorder in 2015, Stacy and Craig McDivitt turned to maple for help with bills and soon became one of those 900 producers.

While growing up, Craig’s father and uncle took to producing maple syrup. Approximately 30 years after that operation ended, Craig’s fond memories lead him back to continuing the legacy.

“I became obsessed with researching it. I researched it for a good year,” Craig said.

“Oh, it was a good two years, Craig. You had that evaporating machine sitting here for two years,” Stacy McDivitt responded.

Since then, they’ve seriously invested in creating an operation, adding new storage tanks to transport and hold sap and purchasing a preheater, a reverse osmosis system and a new evaporator.

From the red sugar house outside their home in Southington, the couple has created a growing business producing maple products, with sales doubling between 2016 and 2017.

Karl Evans, another Trumbull County maple producer and the vice president of Ohio Maple Producers Association, has a similar origin — a hobby that started 34 years ago and bloomed into a business.

“I was just a kid looking for a hobby to do after school and I thought I could make some money off it,” he said. “It has been a little up and down over the years. I last worked over at RG Steel, and it shut down in 2012. Since then I’ve tried to pretty much make a living at it. Things have grown a lot since then.”

Evans has about 4,500 taps and produces anywhere from 900 to 1,800 gallons of syrup per year.

Both the start of the season and the sap yield depend heavily on the weather.

“From 2012 to 2015, we had very late seasons. 2015 was the latest year I’ve ever made syrup. Now these past three winters have been very mild, the seasons have been very early,” Evans said. “I had hoped to make about 2,000 gallons this year, and I can already tell that is not going to happen.”

Producers rely on a cycle of freeze and thaw. Freezing nights followed by warmer days will result in good sap flow, but if the climate remains too warm, it can cause the trees to begin to bud, which affects the flavor of the sap.

While the season is on average four to six weeks across North America, this can vary greatly.

“It can change to a month. I want to say it was around 2013, the season was around one day,” Craig McDivitt said. “It froze, it thawed, the trees ran, and it never froze again that year. You are kind of at the mercy of Mother Nature.”

Different producers have different processes for collecting sap. Evans uses a system of tubes to siphon the sap from his thousands of taps back to the sugar house.

The McDivitts collect sap in wines bags, and they gather it manually from their about 600 taps, collecting it in the storage tank installed on their truck.

“We make a day of just tapping the trees (when the season began), and it pretty much takes all day. Once that happens, there is no taking days off. If the trees run, you need to gather it,” Craig said.

“Monday and Tuesday, we were up to almost 2 in the morning,” Stacy added.

Because the process of making syrup is about reducing the sap, it takes around 50 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup.

After collecting the sap, which is around 2 percent sugar, producers send the sap through a reverse osmosis system that pumps the sap at a high pressure into the filter system, forcing water out of the sap and reducing the boiling time required.

From there, the syrup enters the evaporator to be boiled down, ending with syrup that is 66 percent sugar.

“For the best quality of syrup, if it runs you boil it that night. That is the golden rule,” Craig said.

The syrup is then graded along a scale running lighter to darker syrup.

“This is one of the biggest misconceptions, there is no different process we do to make lighter syrup than darker syrup,” Stacy said.

“A lot of it is just the time of year,” Craig added. “A lot of us syrup producers strive to make light syrup because that means everything is going right, your sap is good quality.”

It all depends on the syrup’s destination.

“If you are going to retail your syrup and your customers want darker syrup, you want darker syrup,” Evans said.

The syrup also can be created in different ways to be utilized in other products. Stacy McDivitt said her biggest focus is on value-added products, creating maple apple butter, maple hot pepper jam, maple candies and more.

The McDivitts’ products can be found at the Howland Farmers Market the first and third Saturday of every month. They are expanding their business by opening a commercial kitchen and bringing products to stores and online, as well as opening their own store. More details can be found on their Facebook page — McDivitt Family Maple LLC.

Evans sells in bulk out of his home and is available at certain retailers. He is also the owner, alongside Dan Miller, of May Hill Maple, LLC, which supplies equipment to area maple producers. For more details on Evans’ products, call 330-583-2892.

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