How Sweet It Is: Ransom’s Maple Syrup

By Christopher Miller

It appears that local maple syrup producer Harold Ransom has gotten himself into a sticky situation. For years he has been driving out to his camp in Tioga County around the February/March months with one goal in mind: to make maple syrup.

Driving our local backroads, one can sometimes glimpse into the brief maple syrup producing season which differs year to year. Along Route 287 and Route 44, if you see endless plastic pipes running from tree to tree into the forest then you most likely have just driven past the collection points of someone’s maple sap hoard.

“It depends on the temperature and Spring, this year it was late…it was into the end of February and into March before the trees started to run pretty well,” explained Harold. As soon as the temperature rises above freezing is when the producers begin to come out and inspect their taps and lines, ready for the onslaught of maple sap to run through to collection tanks. This is all thanks to science and the rising temperatures.

According to the Illinois Science Council, as the days become warmer and the nights dip below freezing, this creates a freeze-thaw cycle. The sap inside the tree continuously freezes and thaws, leading to bursts of pressure inside the tree that cause the sap to flow.

This next part is what can separate the big producers from the little guys. Tap spouts are then pounded into the tree to collect the sap in buckets while it is flowing during the day. Some of the larger producers actually connect line-after-line to collection tanks covering many acres of land and many piles of pipeline.

For Harold, he cannot use buckets to collect the sap. “Where we tap our trees, you cannot do it with buckets because the trees are spread out too far, steep hills, we cannot carry it by hand,” he explained.

Once Harold has collected the sap, it goes into a whirlwind of production married by heat and science.
“Once it is collected you boil it over fire, usually by gas or wood…I use wood…you boil it down to around 219 degrees,” explained Harold. It seems the 219 degree mark is the magic number in all of this. Anything higher and boiled longer starts to change the consistency of the sap-into-syrup. In fact, when you boil it longer and whip it is how you begin to produce those sweet little “maple leaf” candies and treats.

But technically, and maple syrup is a technical process, it is not deemed a “syrup” until it reaches a certain point. True, you would have boiled it up to 219 degrees, but for the rest you want to rely on a hydrometer.

A hydrometer works based on the density of the maple syrup. There are 2 scales of measurement here: Brix and Baume. The Brix scale indicates the percentage of sugar in the maple syrup, while the Baume scale is a measure of how dense the syrup is related to the density of water. To reach the status of “syrup” it must be a correct density of at least 66% sugar. How sweet it is!

Is that scientific enough for you?

What Harold Ransom makes is: Pure. Maple. Syrup. Nothing else is added to it. During the Spring and Summer months the leaves of the sugar maple take the sunshine and use photosynthesis to convert sunlight into sugar. Later in the year, to prepare for the loss of sunlight and the tree’s leaves, the sap migrates down low to the trunk of the tree where it is stored. After it is boiled down, what you are consuming is sap + sunshine.

Here are some fun facts that Harold was able to divulge from his decades of experience learning the trade from his father:

•It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup.
•Maple syrup is so expensive because of the labor it takes to make it.
•Harold can produce usually around 50 – 100 gallons of maple syrup a year.
•One tree can produce about 5 gallons of sap during a season.
•Any maple tree can produce sap to make syrup; Sugar Maple (the best), Regular Hard, Soft (the poorest producer), Red Maple. Some end up having more sugar content than others.

So why should you trust Harold with your maple syrup needs? He is backed by generations of syrup producers, decades of experience, and a heck of a sticky hobby that propels him into the deepest of woods on the coldest of winter days.

If you are interested in purchasing a quart of Ransom’s Pure Maple Syrup for $15, please find “Kara L. Ransom” on Facebook and send her a message! Remember: you’re not only purchasing a breakfast staple, but a family legacy behind the bottle cap.