MAKING LIQUID GOLD
Drewry Farms, Inc. main sugar bush of over 100 acres of hardwood forest, mainly of sugar maple trees, is located on a hill overlooking the Onion River and the former village of Winooski. The farm is 18 miles west of Sheboygan and 50 north of Milwaukee. They currently tap about 5000 trees using suspended pipelines and vacuum pumps. Sap is boiled down into syrup in their sugar house located near the bottom of the hill on Winooski Road. Ancestors of the Drewrys, coming from Vermont, settled & started to farm here in 1847. They probably brought their maple syrup making knowledge with them.
Today, tapping is done with power tools, spouts are scientifically designed in metal or plastic and metal pails, plastic bags and plastic tubing are used to collect the sap. Here at Drewry Farms, we use the newest technology being used by many larger maple syrup producers. All of their woods have plastic tubing suspended on wire lines, looking like a giant spider web in the woods.
When it is time to tap the trees in the spring, many family members & friends join in to help. Throughout the fall, repairs have been made on the lines & each spile has been replaced.
Davey & Russ
Neil, Ann & doggy helpers
Barb & Dave Sr.
When the nights are below freezing & the days are above freezing, the sap runs. Vacuum pumps are set in 4 different locations collecting the sap into stainless steel tanks that suck the sap out of the trees. From the center of our woods, sap gravity-flows down to the sugar shack, just like Dave did many years ago. The other 3 collection areas have to be hauled in a specially designed wagon with a tank & a pump on it, to transport the sap back to the sugar shack.
A specifically designed reverse osmosis machines and an evaporator designed with a preheater, speed the removal of water to produce the syrup. The faster the water is evaporated, the lighter the color & more delicate the flavor. All syrup that Drewry Farms produces is Grade A & we produce, bottle & sell the major three categories: Amber Rich, Dark Robust & Very Dark Strong.
Although much research is being done to increase the sugar content of sap, it still takes at least 40-50 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. Approximately 39-49 gallons of water are removed. When the trees start to bud, the season is over with it usually running 4-8 weeks on average. Wisconsin ranks 3rd or 4th, depending on the year, in maple syrup production in the United States.
Visitors are welcome to tour both the sugar bush and the syrup house during the maple syrup season which usually starts in March.
