COLUMBUS, Ohio – Whether you’re a first-timer at producing maple syrup or just need a little honing up on your skills, the time is right to ‘enlist’ in Ohio State University’s Maple Boot Camp.

The Maple Boot Camp will be June 22-24 at OSU’s Mansfield campus. It will provide intensive hands-on training for beginner and intermediate maple producers.

“Participants will get details on how to assess a sugarbush and all the steps that follow, from collecting sap to boiling, bottling and selling,” said event co-organizer Kathy Smith, of OSU’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CFAES). Smith is the forestry program director for the CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources.

“By the end of the program, participants will gain the skills necessary for the safe, efficient and profitable production of maple products,” she said. 

Classroom sessions will take place at the campus. Field trips and tours will visit local maple operations, including one on the campus.

Smith said the boot camp offers eight key lessons: What Trees to Tap; How to Install a Tap; How Many Taps to Have; How & When Sap Flows; How to Collect Sap; How to Store and Filter Sap; How to Make Value-Added Products; and How to Market What You Make.

“While sugar maple is considered ‘the’ tree to tap for syrup, there are also other maples you can tap,” Smith said, adding that black maple, red maple, silver maple and a red-silver cross can be tapped. “Sugar and black maples produce sap with a high sugar content, which means less sap boiling. But today’s technology can make some of the other species pretty competitive.”

The boot camp will teach attendees how to identify the different maple species, and will cover the differences between them when it comes to making syrup.

After tree identification, Smith said, comes the tap installation.

“Proper tapping procedure minimizes the impact on the health of the tree,” she said. “Most producers today use 20-volt cordless drills to drill their taps, and the size of the bit and the depth of the hole are critical. The boot camp will cover them both.”

The number of taps to incorporate is another key, Smith said, a mistake oftentimes made by tappers.

“Producers have a rule of thumb for how many taps a tree should have,” Smith said, “and it’s based on the tree’s diameter when measured 4.5 feet off the ground. We’ll explain the rule and how to use it, because you never want to over tap your trees as you don’t want to shorten the tree’s productive lifespan. The more holes and broken branches a tree has, the more difficult it may be for the tree to produce the pressure needed to get the sap flowing.”

Temperatures dictate sap flow. Nights in the 20s and days in the 40s are key. When the thermometer goes above 32 degrees Fahrenheit, pressure in the tree makes the sap flow. That fluctuation is key.

“Understanding sap flow and the role of temperature will lead to a more successful season,” Smith said. “Maple producers become weather fanatics when January rolls around.”

The boot camp will show attendees that buckets, bags and tubing are options when collecting sap. Also, having the sap go into a storage tank or directly into an evaporator are choices to make as well.

“Producers must use a collection container that is food grade,” Smith said. “Producers must ask themselves if they are selling the syrup or keeping it for home consumption. That may make the difference in deciding whether to filter or not. The boot camp will look at the pros, cons and differences among the options.”

An assortment of value-added products can be made from maple syrup, from maple cream to maple candy to granulated maple syrup. The boot camp will help producers in marketing such products.

“Knowing how you want to distribute what you make is key to a successful operation,” Smith said. “Are you making them just for friends and family? Are they being sold from the farm or at a farmers market, or perhaps by arrangement in a local store? We’ll look at the options and what’s needed to carry them out.”

Registration for the boot camp is $150. Details can be found in the event flyer at go.osu.edu/maplebootcamp. The deadline to register is June 14.

For more information, contact Smith at smith.81@osu.edu or 614-688-3136.