Schafer,69, is pouring from a pail into the collection tub on the back of Fred has been making syrup since he was a boy in upstate New York-Fred’s “sugar bush.” (Photo by Steve Kohls)

One of the oldest crops in North America was being harvested this month a few miles up the Minnesota River from New Ulm.

Fred Schafer, 69, drew sap from the sugar maple trees and cooked it down to maple syrup. This has been done for centuries. White Europeans found the Indians making maple syrup when they settled the land.

A NATIVE of western New York state, Fred learned to make syrup as a boy, stoking the fire for his father. They tapped trees in the Allegheny mountains near the Pennsylvania border.

He moved to Reim’s Camp on the banks of the Minnesota River in 1954 and, with help of the late Victor P. Reim, set up a sugar shanty. This is his 17th year of making the flowing spread for hotcakes, waffles and ice cream.

“I’m cutting down a little,” said Fred.”I tapped only 275 trees this year.”

In past years, he has tapped up to 400.

THE SEASON STARTS when the temperature climbs to the lower 40s. Then the sweet sap flows. It contains from 11/2 to 3 per cent solids, mostly sucrose.

This sweet sap is different from the circulatory sap of the growing tree.

“When we were kids,” said Fred, “we used to break twigs off the sugar trees so they would drip. When the temperature dropped, icicles would form and we would lick them.”

FRED COLLECTS SAP from buckets hanging on the trees, hauls it by tractor to his shanty. When he has enough sap, he stokes up the evaporator.

The sap flows downhill through the evaporator. When it reaches 218 degrees, it is syrup and must be drained off. If he would let the heat go to 235 degrees, it would become maple sugar.

It takes between 30 and 50 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. When the water cooks off, a cloud of steam hangs over Fred’s shanty.

He keeps the syrup in cream cans until finding time to put it in plastic jugs. He sells syrup in pints, quarts and half gallons.

“Best thing for syrup-making,” said Fred,”is for a warm day, then have the temperature drop to 26 degrees in the night. This slows flow of the sap, and lengthens the season.”

A GOOD, HEALTHY tree produces about a quart of syrup.

Maple syrup is produced commercially only in the United States-from Vermont to Minnesota, and in eastern Canada.

An operation such as operated by Fred – trees, evaporator and collection equipment-is called a “sugar bush.”

Few of the sugar maples in Minnesota are ever tapped.

New Ulm Daily Journal

April 7, 1975