Benjamin Logan’s Environmental Science Club recently experienced a first-hand look (and tasting) of maple syrup production in Logan County when Bruce and Jodie Kavanagh opened their farm to the students and allowed them to participate in the process of turning sap into syrup.
Ohio ranks 4th or 5th in production nationwide, and the Kavanaghs tap about 200 maple trees on their property north of Bellefontaine. Terry and Cindy Tremains and Mike Maze also assisted with the presentation.
Cold nights and warm days cause the sap to run up from the roots through the xylem, where it is collected.
Mr. Kavanagh demonstrated to the approximately 40 fourth- through eighth-graders in attendance the tapping — drilling a hole at just the right depth and installing a spile that directs the flow of sap into a food grade plastic collection bag.
The 200 taps will provide about 1,600 gallons of sap, which will yield perhaps 40 gallons of finished product. This ratio explains the significant retail price for this product — equal to approximately 15 times that of gasoline per gallon.
Students emptied the bags hanging from the trees into five gallon buckets. The collected sap was then taken to the evaporator, a wood fired pan where the sap is concentrated into syrup. Long nights operating the evaporator are required to remove most of the water from the sap thereby concentrating the sugar.
The students tasted the sap at the beginning of the process and near the end, just before it was drawn off as syrup. While both samples were sweet, the best lay ahead.
Concluding the hands-on tour, Mrs. Kavanagh and Mrs. Tremains cooked up golden brown griddle cakes to be served up with the syrup. Benjamin Logan bus driver Mrs. McCullough lent a hand with hot chocolate and the students eagerly ate their fill.
By having participated in the experience, the students were exposed to a side of Logan County’s rural character that is not always appreciated by the public, Environmental Science club leaders noted.
“The hard work and dedication of their hosts made the importance of good stewardship of our county’s woodland resources clear to the students.”
To show their appreciation for the hospitality provided by the Kavanaghs, the couple was presented with a sap bucket that Bob Stoll recovered and restored from a much earlier Logan County maple sugar operation.
The Environmental Science Club is co-sponsored by the school district and the Logan County Land Trust. The club is directed by Ryan Kerns, Spencer Reames, Bruce Smith and Stoll.
For more information about the Logan County Land Trust, visit logancountylandtrust.org.