James Miller stepped out from the passenger side of a pickup truck onto the fertile soil that nourishes the 83 acres of maple trees dotting…
James Miller stepped out from the passenger side of a pickup truck onto the fertile soil that nourishes the 83 acres of maple trees dotting his property on Chipmunk Lane.
Born in a house across the way on Georgia Road, Miller is a third generation Amish man devoted to his faith, his family and maple trees in Middlefield.
“I have maple running through my veins,” said Miller, owner of Sugar Valley Maple. “Preserving maple is one of my passions.”
Since the 1800s, Geauga County has been called the Sugar Bowl of Ohio, and is considered the largest maple producing county in the Buckeye State.
With real maple syrup being made just once a year, producers keep an eye to the sky and the Old Farmer’s Almanac waiting in anticipation of what the season will bring.
“Everybody was a little pessimistic when they saw the weather in February about maple,” Miller said, as he sat down outside his sugarhouse. “However, the weather for maple did cooperate to 80 to 90 percent of a full crop in Geauga County, and from what I hear, the State of Ohio. It was a short sweet season that ended on April 6th.”
Newbury Township’s Les Ober, considered by many to be the county’s leading authority in maple production, explained even though the season started late, there was a lot of good quality maple syrup made the last two weeks of March and first week of April.
“I really cannot compare this season to any other in that I have never seen temperatures in February as cold as they were or as much snow in the woods to start the season,” Ober said. “The trees were completely frozen at tapping time.”
As an Ohio State University Extension agent and fourth generation maple producer, Ober said he spends roughly 25 percent of his time at OSU Extension working in the area of maple syrup production, educating others with programs like Maple 101 and seminars in Ohio and other states.
“Producers on tubing with vacuums made the most, but many of the producers with buckets came out OK,” Ober said.
About 50 miles of sky blue tubing stretched across Miller’s land behind his sugarhouse like giant extended rubber bands.
Miller is one of the larger maple producers in the county, with 3,400 taps, and one of the few certified organic — since 2008 — maple farms in northeastern Ohio.
Miller’s son, Toby, a fourth generation Miller, helps his father with related chores, while his wife, Linda, does the paperwork.
“Vacuum tubing sucks the sap and tricks the trees into thinking there’s a different atmospheric pressure or temperature outside,” Miller said. “We get more sap. There’s a lot of science putting tubing out for good production.”
In the southwest corner of the county, Messenger Century Farm in Auburn Township sits on 68 acres of conserved property through Western Reserve Land Conservancy.
Dee Belew, who owns the farm with her husband, Bill Belew, said the first sugaring on their farm was done around 1842.
“Records indicate that our old sugarhouse is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the county,” Dee Belew said. “(The season) started out slower than normal but produced a very high quality of syrup, but not as many gallons as the previous years.”
She said they tapped about 850 taps this year.
“We are at the mercy of nature whether it is your livelihood or not,” said Chardon Township’s Tiffany Homewood of Uncle Wally’s Sugar Bush.
She runs the sugarbush with boyfriend Paul Janoske Jr.
“Being that syrup is part of our income, our goal is to yield enough to supply our growing base of regular customers,”?she said.
They are considered a medium sized sugarbush in the county, located on Auburn Road near state Route 6, with their syrup selling at Reider’s grocery store in Concord Township.
“It’s a great feeling to be part of this historic experience, which keeps the heritage alive in our county,” Homewood added.
With a blue sky as a backdrop for billowing late April clouds, Miller recalled buying snowshoes to navigate the knee-deep snow earlier in the year around his towering maple trees.
“Mother Nature did cooperate with maple,” Miller said, who will do some forest management in preparation for next season. “We had our freezing nights and warmer days where sap did run.”
Ober added, “We will have to wait for the final USDA crop report at the beginning of June, but early reports are that most areas of the country, including Canada, had a good year.”
