Maple tour mixes traditions with technology
The 2023 Somerset County Maple Taste and Tour held last weekend at 24 different locations showcased "a mixture of traditions and technology" for the thousands who poured into the local camps.
For tourist Marcus Harrigan of Frostburg, Maryland, his annual visit to maple camps symbolizes the combination of something old and something new. This year Harrigan brought along Julie Kelley, who experienced the ambiance of maple tasting and touring for the first time, and both of them were enjoying a guided tour with Cody Simmons at Wagner's Sugar Camp near Salisbury on Saturday.
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"The tour shows how maple producers operate today in modern times but it brings back the nostalgia from generations ago," Harrigan said. "In essence, it is a mixture of traditions and technology and is enveloped in the local culture. At the scale of what some of these camps are operating, it would be impossible to use a simple arch or stovetop."
Both Harrigan and Kelley agree that the tour at Wagner's gave them an appreciation for a camp that was both traditional with several antique displays and technological with equipment such as releasers, reverse osmosis (RO), a monitoring system and a modern evaporator.
Their guide Cody Simmons explained that all the sap from the miles of tubing goes into refrigeration tanks, then releasers allow the intake of sap into the RO, which ultimately takes much of the water out of the sap in order to reduce boiling time in the evaporator. In other words, the whole process of making maple syrup and its products is like a well-oiled machine on the 23,000 taps at Wagner's.
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And, while owners of Wagner's Sugar Camp, Jeremy and Ginny Walters and their many helpers, weren't actually boiling for the tour, they were available to answer questions, hand out samples as well as sell products.
"We are done boiling for the season," said Jeremy Walters. "The warmer weather in February and it being so dry caused us to finish early. It wasn't a banner year. Maybe slightly below average but still a good year in all. What's nice about the tour is it gives us a chance to show others the process of making maple syrup. It's great for families."
Just across the hill basically on the other side of Salisbury, the Blochers were entertaining a non-stop crowd at Milroy Farms. The original owners of Wagner's and Milroy were sisters a few generations ago.
Guy and Jodi Berkebile, of Somerset, stopped by Milroy during the afternoon Saturday to a packed-house showroom kitchen and camp.
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"This tour pulls together old time traditions and new technology. It has become a family tradition for many," said Guy Berkebile. "The whole process of gathering sugar water and preparing to boil it into maple syrup has taken on a whole new meaning in the last 30 or 40 years when technology started to take center stage in the industry. That's why this tour is so important because it gives the maple producers an opportunity to show their family heritage."
Jason Blocher, who owns Milroy with his wife, Melissa, explained afterwards that his generations-old camp with 17,000 taps was "steady busy" on Saturday, which tends to be the biggest day of the two-day tour. Part of their camp's motto is "age-old tradition and modern technology." Like Wagner's, Milroy's last boil was last week.
"This event continues to grow in popularity each year with more tourists and more sites," said Blocher. "Visitors from the local area and from as far away as Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., just to name a few, keep coming back year after year because they want to see how maple syrup is made. People want to know where their food comes from and they can come to this event and see everything firsthand and not just at one location but over 20."
Tourists at Milroy got to see the vacuum system, the ROs and the evaporation equipment amidst a big kitchen stocked with all kinds of products and boiling rooms set up with some steam for demonstrations.
"In my opinion, the RO is the biggest leap in syrup production since the modern evaporator because it saves on fuel costs," said Blocher. "Then, here at Milroy, we employ a Smarttech monitoring system which ultimately saves countless man hours by identifying what tanks are full and if there are any problems in the vacuum. Technology has come a long way in maple syrup production and Somerset County has been a part of that wave."
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Somerset County, PA maple tour showcases 24 sugar camps
