SHELBY COUNTY — Did you know Indiana ranks tenth in the nation for maple syrup production?
According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, Indiana produced over 23,000 gallons of syrup.
While the numbers alone are impressive, knowing that all of the sap needed to create all this maple syrup is collected in only January through March might be surprising.
Red Bridge Maple Farm is a hobby farm in Shelby County that only recently started collecting sap to be made into maple syrup.
The Deak family runs the farm, and they didn't realize nearly 80% of the trees in their 60 acres of land were sugar maples.
"We had a forester come out here, we were just looking to keep the woods and canopy healthy," Jennifer Deak said. "We had someone come out here and educate us a little bit. When we realized that, that's when we got started in doing all this."
Just because nature provides the trees doesn't mean easy work for the family.
Weather dictates each sap-collecting season, and the farm is grateful that 2025 is off to a much better start compared to 2024.
"The cold weather, the great winter temperatures and the snow has made this a really great season," Patrick Deak explained. "We've collected over 1,200 gallons of sap so far."
In order for the sap to start flowing in the trees, temperatures during the day need to warm above the freezing mark. Temperatures at night need to cool back into the 20s.
"That is the perfect sap running season!" Patrick Deak exclaimed.
If the farm knows temperatures will be near this criteria, they will drill holes into the trees, insert spiles into the hole, and then hang a blue collection bag under the hole. This year, they tapped their first tree on January 26.
When temperatures warm during the day, the pressure inside the tree also increases. This pushes the sap out of the tree, through the drilled hole, and into the collection bag.
At night, when temperatures cool and pressure decreases, the flow of sap stops.
Other factors that influence how much sap is produced are how much rain we have in the fall or how much snow we have in the winter because this provides moisture into the ground.
"Everything that we do is dependent on the weather," Patrick Deak said.
Collecting sap to be made into maple syrup isn't a full-time job for the Deaks, but this hobby still includes three to four hours of collecting sap each night during the season.
The farm hopes their collection will run all the way through mid-March. In the few years they have been operating, their record for sap collection is 2,500 gallons. They are hopeful this year for a yield of 3,000 gallons.
"That will give us only about 75 gallons of syrup, which for us is a lot of syrup," Patrick Deak said. "That's a lot of pancakes!"
When temperatures are consistently in the 40s or 50s, that is when trees begin to bud. This is usually the end of the collection season because sap starts to turn bitter.
It got warm quickly in 2024, which meant that the season ended early. This was on top of other problems caused by weather.
"It was really dry, so when sap did run, it didn't run very well," Patrick Deak explained. "It was a very light season."
Once all the sap is collected, the farm will then turn it into maple syrup. It is bottled and eventually sold at farmer's markets.
