Attn: small wood-fired producers

[motowbrowne]

I make syrup in Pierce county, WI, where I am from. Every year I drive a small load of syrup back to the west coast for sale to my neighbors, friends, etc. This year i am hoping to increase the amount of volume that i am hauling, and I am looking for some folks to buy syrup from. I would like to find 3-5 small scale (say less than 2000 taps) producers who are using lead-free equipment, cooking with wood, and not using vacuum or reverse osmosis. I know that syrup made in other ways is also great, but wood-fired is what I'm looking for. Mainly what I am looking for is darker grades of syrup, and in bulk containers. I hope to continue to increase in volume for a couple of years, but in the next few years I plan to be buying somewhere between 300 and 1000 gallons per year. I am willing to pay better than the going bulk rate for syrup of this quality, provided I can visit your operation and see it for myself. i think that folks out west will be willing to pay well for really good syrup, and if that is the case i can afford to pay better than bulk rates to producers who make what I am looking for. I make two trips to WI every year, and I will be in the area this November. if this is of interest to you, I would love to meet at that time and discuss the matter further. feel free to contact me on mapletrader or else e-mail, my address is motownbrowne@gmail.com

Thanks,
Ryan Browne

[motowbrowne]

Well I just thought I would visit this post again. I know I will probably have a better chance of meeting some small producers closer to the season, but I wanted to encourage anyone who was thinking about e-mailing me about their operation to contact me. I would really like to meet some folks in my area and talk about buying some syrup.

Thanks,
Ryan

[Brad W Wi]

I went to send you an E-mail but your not posted correctly. I have a set up like you want to buy from. The problem I see for you is that a lot of small producers like me (400 pails) always sell out to locals and tourists. You might want to open your buying to people with gas or fuel oil units. I understand and agree with the lead free, but wonder why the vacume or R.O. not wanted

[motowbrowne]

That e-mail address is motownbrowne@gmail.com. which is listed correctly in the original post. as you will notice, the email address has an "n" which my maple trader name does not have as the result of a typo when creating this account. I have received emails from maple trader users from this post, so it must work. I agree with you about the difficulty in finding small-scale producers who don't sell out to locals, but I think I should be able to find what I'm looking for in small producers who don't have a big enough retail market for all the syrup they can produce. as far as the type of syrup I want, I'm not trying to start a debate about one kind of syrup versus another, but it is my personal belief that syrup made the old way on wood fires without vacuums and RO is a different product. All I want to do is bottle it separately. Also, I would rather buy syrup made from wood not from oil that is usually imported, and always mined from the earth. Again, not trying to start anything here, just trying to corner a specific market. there isn't any wood-fired maple syrup on the shelf on the west coast, so that's what I want to sell, I just can't make enough to provide all of it, at least not yet.

[jmayerl]

So are you planning on providing bulk containers? Picking up at out location? you are willing to pay more than the going bulk rate (2.85/lbs)? Filtered/ unfiltered? Just a few questions, wondering your logistics on the plan.

[jfroe939]

I think sometimes, too, that with wood-fired you might get just a slight "hint" of smoke flavor in your syrup and to some folks that's most desirable versus a sealed-up gas/oil fired unit. I don't know it to be fact either, but I've heard that RO syrup might be a little less mapley because it doesn't get to cook the flavors through and carmelize as long as sap that's going from 2 or 3% straight to the end. RO cuts some of the cooking time out and perhaps the less cooking time works against the natural flavors. I heard that from a guy that went to RO because he wanted/needed to produce more syrup, not from somebody set dead against RO either... almost like he understood what RO intrinsically did to the syrup, but he needed to fill more orders and RO was the best method to get more syrup made. Again, I don't know that for fact - just what I heard (nor do I want to turn this into a RO flavor blog thread). That being said, I too produce syrup on flat pans over wood and I know I've got people that come back for one reason or another. If you can find the right market where people think maple syrup is a treat- that's the ticket. Best of luck Ryan. Sounds like you've found a niche market.

[motowbrowne]

Jmayerl: the answer to those questions depends on a lot of factors, but yes, I am willing to pay more than the going bulk rate of whatever I am buying, which will be dark grade syrup. If the bulk price is 2.85/# for filtered B grade then I will pay a little more for the right product. I wouldn't buy syrup from anyone without seeing their operation, so I guess I would be coming to your location, at least the first time, but if it's far from me, I would probably like to meet in the middle in the future. I will have to work out the details with containers and everything else with each of the few producers I work with, but I am open to providing containers, or returning them to their owner. Just in the beginning phases over here, but I think it will work out. Let me know if you want some more details or want to discuss selling some syrup.

jfroe: I certainly understand the draw for RO, the energy efficiency especially. As far as I am concerned, the RO is the most agreeable new form of technology in the industry, but I have heard the perspective you mentioned that it may be less "mapley". Of course we have to be careful here, and I should mention that I have bought and greatly enjoyed some tasty maple syrup from RO producers. What I mostly want to avoid is fossil fuels for stated reasons and vacuum because sucking sap out of trees creeps me out. Again, I know that my view is probably in the minority of syrup producers, and I certainly don't think that syrup made with those methods is worse, just different. I think I will find plenty of small producers in my boat who just don't have a big enough market. Thanks for your well wishes and keep up the good work with the WMSPA.

Ryan

[maple connection]

I am a small producer that in cental WI that would be interested if you would decide that a R.O. is O.K. in the operation. I make about 300 gallons a year on a 2x6. It is all sap collected from bags and buckets. I am a member of CNG which I get inspected each year to make sure I am keeping the trees in good health and the cooking operation clean and natural as possible. You can send me a pm if you are interested in my syrup. It is filtered and I store it in 15 and 30 gallon drums.

[maple connection]

Ryan, I will e-mail you with more info.

[1badsapper]

I'm interested, we do it the old fashion way with all wood. Gathered from pails, no solder ect. This spring may work if we don't sell out. Leave me a message on here.
Thank you
Ric Oestreich