Expert Cautiously Optimistic About Upcoming Season
As prime maple-sugaring season approaches, local producer Aggy Sperry recently reflected on bringing home two international awards last fall for syrup she makes with the Gingerich family under Gingerich Brothers and Sperry LLC.
As prime maple-sugaring season approaches, local producer Aggy Sperry recently reflected on bringing home two international awards last fall for syrup she makes with the Gingerich family under Gingerich Brothers and Sperry LLC.
At the North American Maple Syrup Council and International Maple Syrup Institute meeting in Port Huron, Michigan, from Oct. 22-25, Sperry’s medium amber and very dark syrups each earned first-place prizes. Sojka-Sperry’s syrup has garnered nearly 30 awards over the last 25 years.
For Sperry, the craft of making maple syrup — and the community that surrounds it — sweetens every aspect of life.
“I love everything about it (maple syrup making and culture),” she said in a recent interview.
Sperry’s maple-syrup journey began in childhood, after her family moved from Richmond Heights to Chester Township.
One of eight children, she and her siblings helped local farmers after school at one of the five sugarhouses within walking distance of their home. Her involvement deepened as a young adult when she met her future husband.
Mark Sperry, then an attorney, worked on Main Street in Chardon and would stop in to talk maple syrup with Aggy — then Aggy Sojka — at the building she owned on Chardon Square.
They eventually started dating and Sperry surprised her with a visit to his family’s sugarhouse in Middlefield on their second date.
Sugaring remained central in their lives after marriage and in 1975, they began hosting maple syrup-themed parties at their sugarhouse, a tradition that continues today.
Around the same time, the Sperries partnered with the Gingerich family, starting with Dan, then his brothers Jonas and John, followed by Jacob and David, and now a third generation: Davy, Michael and Matthew.
“The partnership is unusual,” Sperry said, describing a close-knit operation that feels like family. While the Gingeriches handle the bulk of production and sales, Sperry focuses on marketing, using her gift of gab and love of people.
Through connections made at her annual maple parties and in the community, the sugar makers have supplied syrup to local food producers, restaurants and other businesses. Their syrup is also available at Kurtz Discount Groceries in Middlefield and at the sugarhouse itself at 16949 Shedd Road.
Sperry celebrates syrup’s versatility in everyday recipes and seasonal treats.
“I use it in everything and I substitute it (for other sweeteners),” she said. “I hardly ever use sugar.”
Her church, Pilgrim Christian Church in Chardon, uses her syrup at pancake breakfasts and she has developed a popular maple puff popcorn recipe shared with family and friends.
Besides sugaring, Sperry, 85, stays active through international travel with Friendship Force International, a foreign-exchange program for adults. She recently returned from Egypt souvenirs from her travels adorn her home in Chardon.
“I dance to my own music,” she said.
Yet, maple syrup remains her priority.
“I don’t travel during sugaring, which runs from January through March or April,” Sperry said. She works at the sugarhouse every day during boiling seasons and drives her Amish partners home each evening.
Sperry and the Gingerich Brothers plan to tap 6,000 taps this year. She credits Geauga County’s land and climate for her recent victories.
“The trees and the soil (in Geauga County) are conducive to making good syrup,” she said. “When we win in Geauga County, we should toot our horns.”
Les Ober, maple syrup producer and agriculture educator with The Ohio State University Extension office, agrees.
“You’ve got some of the best (maple) producers in the country in this county. Aggy’s one of them,” said Ober in a Jan. 14 phone interview. “(She and) the Gingerich brothers do a tremendous job with syrup.”
Ober Honors Maple Syrup History
Looks Toward Upcoming Season
Ober, a certified agronomist who consults with area farmers on a variety of crops, explained how Geauga County’s geography creates an ideal location for maple syrup production.
“What makes Geauga County special is, number one, the elevation. Locations at 12,000 to 14,000 feet above sea level make a climate that’s suitable for maple production,” Ober said. “We also have a lot of soil that has the right nutrition. Finally, you’ve got to have that freeze-thaw (process) which we get through the lake effect. We get cold weather that comes through, (combined) with the warm waters of Lake Erie, which creates a perfect climate, absolutely perfect. That’s why we’re the number one county in the state for maple production.”
He also noted the county’s maple-syrup tradition dates back to early settlers from New England.
“When the settlers came here from New England, what they saw here reminded them of what they saw back there (in terms of a good environment to cultivate maple trees),” Ober said. “We have that tradition and people have stuck with it. People are really dedicated to what they do. They don’t give up on it and I hope the next generation sees that and continues to do what they do.”
Ober expressed cautious optimism for the upcoming sugaring season due to recent severe storms.
“A lot of woods and a lot of sugarbushes have been getting damaged in this county,” he said. “It takes 50 years for a tree to grow back and if you get enough damage, that’s a big impact on production.
“Another factor is the swings in climate,” he added. “If you get hot weather for a week (during sugaring season), that could put you out of business. The sap slows down or is not running through the tubing, the lines get filled up with bacteria and then you’ve got a problem.”
Ober researches maple production throughout Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He noted new technology may be the key to sustaining the industry.
“We’re finding technology that may overcome the problems (associated with climate fluctuations),” Ober said.
While sap is sterile when it comes directly out of a tree, when “you take that sap and expose it to the air, bring it down a line, move it from one tank to another, bacteria just takes hold,” he said.
“Once we figure out a way to combat bacteria from building, without chemical additives, that’s going to be the solution to keeping maple production going,” Ober said.
For Sperry, unpredictable weather and evolving technology are simply part of the craft she’s practiced for 50 years.
“You’re dependent on the weather and there’s good years and bad years,” she said. “We’ve recorded dates and temperatures, all by hand, on a chart in the sugarhouse. And it’s fun to see because it’s not commercial, it’s personal.”
Her personal connection to the land, the trees and the people who make maple sugar has been central to her career, Sperry said, adding it also helps to live in a place perfectly suited to produce it.
“They haven’t hybridized maple syrup,” she said. “They haven’t mucked with it like they have corn, or beans and everything else. (Maple syrup represents) all the things we want, and that are good and happy in life.”
