Hurley School expands syrup program

HURLEY - Hurley K-12 School students have made maple syrup for years, but funding now makes it possible to expand into a larger and more comprehensive learning experience.

High school science students and the Northwoods Manufacturing program are involved in establishing a tap system for 200 trees using gravity to move sap through tubes to storage tanks to be transported and processed, said Troy Puisto, science teacher. It's the "ground floor" of a something that is expected to continue annually.

"We are getting kids involved with the science part of it and the entire operation," Puisto said.

Funding has made it possible to move from a "bags and the buckets thing to a maze of blue tubes going from tree to tree," he said. A 250 gallon drum at the bottom of the hill is pumped into a transport tank that is moved from private land to the school for processing, he said.

The school received a $25,000 grant through Michigan State University, which came through the Acer program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Roger Peterson, a technical education instructor for the school's Northwoods Manufacturing program. The Acer program is designed to promote awareness and understanding of the maple syrup industry.

The grant provided $7,500 to build a "sugar shack," for processing; $6,000 for a LaPierre Vision evaporator, and $3,000 for a reverse osmosis system, he said. The funds also went to purchase other equipment including 200 taps, tubing, vacuum pump, storage and transportation tanks, a filter press and bottling unit.

Peterson's students are building the sugar shack, said Melissa Oja, middle and high school principal. Students of Jacob Hostettler, the metals instructor, are doing the welding that is required for some equipment involved in the production.

The students have already identified and marked approximately 150 potential trees to collect and process sap, Peterson said. The students tapped around 70 trees on Monday and are currently collecting sap every other day.

"The evaporator has not yet been delivered due to production slowing down at their manufacturing facility," Peterson said. "While we may not be able to process sap this year, we are hopeful to catch the end of the season."

High school students built a reverse osmosis machine with funds from the Hurley Education Foundation, Puisto said. The machine separates water to condense the tree sap.

"It just makes the process so more efficient with less water to worry about," Puisto said. "Another part of it is the filtering process and everything that goes with it. Anybody can make syrup, but the quality syrup that we're shooting for and the process that we're looking for and the mindset is that this is an educational process."

The students learn about sugar content, density, sap and syrup hydrometers, gravity, temperature and meteorology and tree identification, he said. There is a lot of science along with learning to do labeling, packaging and marketing, he said.

Another goal is to expose the elementary and middle school kids to the process, he said. They could bring students out to the parking lot to watch the process in operation.

"There is so much science that goes into this," Puisto said.

The purpose of the program is educational, but also in part to instill the value of syrup processing as a hobby or small business, he said. Kids learn to identify tree varieties in the area and to understand the natural resources they provide. As adults they may pursue agricultural tax breaks by tapping trees to sell sap to processors or to do the processing themselves, he said.

"There is some value there and we have great quality trees here that have been managed very well," Puisto said. "There are a lot of Maples around here."

Staff from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension in Iron County have provided technical advice and support for the Hurley School maple syrup program for at least one season, said Amy Nosal, community development and Iron County Extension educator. In fact, the school became familiar with Jesse Randall, a specialist with Michigan State University, after a meeting at UW Extension's Beginner Maple Syrup Conference in February 2020.

Randall went on to write the grant currently being implemented at the school, Nosal said.

"As we come out of the pandemic this year, Darrin Kimbler and I will be looking towards resuming local classes in the fall," Nosal said. "In the meantime, there will be a small rendition of Iron Maple Festival this April.

The event will include displays and the chambers of commerce from Hurley and Mercer will host the annual recipe and cocktail competition among Iron County food establishments. The 2022 event will be back with more live music and art along with the educational demonstration, she said.