Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Hurley science teacher Dan Rye talks with a group of Hurley elementary students about collecting sap from a maple tree on school property as part of a process of making syrup on March 7. A day of tours and presentations by the schools' Northwoods Manufacturing students highlighted the production of Northwoods Maple, and also included a serving of ice cream with maple syrup. See Page 22 for story and more photos.
By LARRY HOLCOMBE
Hurley - Northwoods maple syrup was front and center at the Hurley K-12 School on Thursday, March 7.
Students from the high school's Northwoods Manufacturing program were busy during the day making syrup and facilitating tours of the operation to a continuing run of small groups of elementary students.
Each tour began with a short presentation with science teacher Dan Rye in a stand of tapped maple trees between the parking lot and Range View Avenue just north of the school. The groups then moved into a large garage off the parking lot to see some more of the process and then to the nearby sugar shack to see the wood fired furnace used to boil the syrup.
Back in the school, other students gave a power point presentation on the process to the various elementary classes which were also served ice cream with maple syrup.
Roger Peterson, instructor in the Hurley School's Northwoods Manufacturing wood shop, said this is the earliest the sap has run for the program, that began in 2019 with the help of $1,000 seed money from the Hurley Education Foundation.
"The sap starts to run when the temperature is right. It started in the first first week in February this year," said Peterson. "Once the sap starts running and the trees are tapped, and bags are put out to collect the sap."
Besides the few tapped trees near the parking lot, Northwoods is using sap from trees on plots of land owned by Peterson and Rye in the county.
Peterson said the sap collected in the bags is 2% sugar. The reverse osmosis process in the garage increases the percent of sugar to 4% or 5%.
The science continues in the sugar shack, where the temperature of the solution is raised above 212 degrees to boil off the water, but making sure to keep the temperature not above 219 where the syrup would begin to burn.
As the water boils off, the percentage of sugar keeps increasing, said Peterson, adding when it gets to 219 they have to remove the syrup out of the pan. At this point its closer to 20% sugar.
The syrup is then brought back into the garage where it's later bottled at between 185 and 200 degrees.
Northwoods Maple is sold from the school. "We have people who will call the school or stop into the office, and then they'll just send them down to the shop," said Peterson.
After the 2019 season, Peterson said they had a grant opportunity from Michigan State part way through the 2019-2020 school year. While the process was slowed by COVID that spring, the following year they used the grant money to build their own sap shop and set up the reverse osmosis.
Michigan State also provided a speaker who brought a lot of knowledge and helped fire up the kids, as well as the program, said Peterson.
In the spring of 2022, they produced 35 gallons. Last year was a down year with just 7 gallons, he said.
"This year we have about 13 gallons bottled and we hope to double that before the season is over," said Peterson.
Rye said he's been making syrup for many years. Peterson said Rye has been helpful to the Northwoods Maple program by also working with the students.
Peterson said he really enjoys seeing the Northwoods Manufacturing students interacting with the younger students.
