The Inside Wisconsin Show’s Post

Transcript

John, have you ever participated in making Maple syrup here in Wisconsin? Did you guys ever do that? Back in the day, no. But every spring, I used to tap the telephone poles for creosol. OK, not edible. Got it. Well, good news, we didn't tap any telephone poles, but we did tap some Maple trees. So Maple syrup. This is a fun, deeper roots. There is a huge, huge history here in Wisconsin in making Maple syrup, and this family's been doing it 170 years, and it's. Really good, deeper roots with our friends at Blains Farm and Fleet. Let's make some Maple syrup pancakes. We've been doing this going on two years now. I'd be willing to bet that this is the deepest rooted story. Talk to me about the process Maple syrup making. Yeah, we have a flat pan cooker fired by firewood. All we're doing is blowing my straw. We're getting the water out of it. You know, Grandpa Joe would always say we're watching sugar dance. Farmers, Brewers, hunters, Packers, Badgers, cheeseheads, neighbors. No matter what name we go by, we are bound together by our roots. These are the people, the stories and the statism from inside Wisconsin. Welcome to Deeper Roots with Blains Farm and Fleet. Our journeys on deeper roots have brought us to a sugar shack of all time. Springtime is here in Wisconsin. We are with the Briar family and a sugar shack that is not 170 year old here, but 170 years worth of tradition in your family, our history. Went back as far as is my father and our grandfather. But as we dug into it and did the research, we found out that great, great grandfather Fred Breyer produced syrup in the Medina Dale area in 1854. And that was documented. You know, they were out doing whatever farmers doing in the spring and sauce, some Native Americans making Maple syrup. And they said we can do that. From there it went to many different places. As the family moved to the Burnwood area, to the Home Farm where my dad and my uncle and and and now Doug lives on the farm and Doug is cooking Maple syrup in a Maple syrup shack right in the woods that grandpa did. You guys, your cousins, I would assume that you picked up right where they left off. Grandma was always involved and then we never got to know her grandpa. He did pass before we were born, but grandma was definitely out there. And then my dad kind of passed it on to us. I first saw it, really produced and and got involved. Was that my grandpa Joe's in Anawa in eight years old. He's cooking Maple syrup. And I said to my dad, we're going to do that someday, right? My dad goes, yeah, we'll do that someday. And then Fast forward to out here. My son is 8. My dad and I are taking off a batch of syrup. And Josh says we're going to do that someday. Dad, right? And now his daughters are out tapping trees. So it's not just multigenerational, It's multifamily, you know, across two different states now. I think there's something special about the way you guys do this, and it's. It's been done this way for 170 years. I'd be willing to bet that this is the deepest rooted story that has come our way. When we walked into the sugar shack here in this room, there is just a plethora of things that you can tell weren't made yesterday. Everything in this room, somebody in your family touched everything. And I would imagine there might be a few things, you know, from the farm to even this building is a historical building that the family bought and we rebuilt in. This building goes back to being made in 1890s. You have a a wood burner. Yeah. We have a flat pan cooker fired by firewood. All we're doing is blowing on my straw. We're getting the water out of it. You know, Grampa Joe would always say we're watching sugar dance because as they boil in, that sugar comes up and raises up and and plumes of sugar and the plume start changing to be golden amber. And it's just it's a continuation. It was a thing that we did every year and grew up doing that and it was a way to want to stay out of trouble, but also to build the stories, you know, we got a ways to go. We're still white pluming the boils. You know we've got white steam. Here with the boils you can't see is where you really watch it. It's better than TV. I think you should teach me how to make it. You want to walk us through the process? You're not going to give away any family secrets. There's no family secrets. There aren't any. No. You're telling me Everybody boils. Eggs in syrup. It's entertaining. Hello. Tell me about this. You guys boil eggs in there. You boil hot dogs. Little sticky here, Jake. Little sticky foam. You do this too? Ohh. Yes. That's how our grandparents ate. It's how our parents they you know? The hard boiled egg fan. Is this going to be, like super sweet? I take it? I think you might notice a difference. Yeah. OK well, the story about Grandpa used to be at when steps using came in the spring time of the year. Grandma and the rest of them, we didn't see him much because he took a carton of eggs, sack of potatoes and his fishbowl and went out to the SAP track. He didn't come home until he needed more food. Or they can help with chores. Almost smoking. What you going for? Yeah, you throw your baked potatoes in the fire and happy Easter. All right, teach me. The way would you tap in time the Maple tree that's in your front yard. And I can see here that you've tapped it a time or two. How many years have you been getting SAP out of this very tree? 30 + 35 years maybe. It doesn't harm the tree. No, it doesn't. Tell me about what you need to do now to to get the SAP out. Well, as soon as you drill the hole in the tree, it's just like, cut your skin. It immediately starts healing. So we're really conscious of where we tap. We find some good, healthy wood. We're just tap it inside the bark. That's where the sapwood is. We tap West. South and E because that's for the sun, warms up. So we just pick a healthy spot and what we're doing is slight angle up. And we drill in, we drill deeper. So we have stability for the spirit because the spirit will hold the weight of this app. And now we're going to put the spile in and the spile is just the collector of the SAP coming out. We're catching the SAP coming up from the roots because it's taking the nutrients up to the buds to the leaves. So we have a small hole in the bottom and that's where the SAP comes up and we just tap that in there. Officially Tap Officially tapped and you hang the bucket right here. Hang the bucket. And come back with running and collect it, cover it. You don't get stuff in it like leaves, bark, rain. Chipmunks. Raccoons. Random cats. Yeah. Don't no catch it. Dear, dear, yeah, I bet you dear love it. Alright, sugar, shack it. Let's go. And the idea here is boiling it down. Is that just the best way to put it? Just boiling water is what we're doing, and it's the process of getting into the boiling point. And as it gets more dense, the boiling point is different than the boiling point of water. 212 is water. On a normal atmospheric day, Maple syrup boils at 219��, seven degrees above the boiling point We've gravity feed. On the tank into the pans and transfer it forward and when it becomes Maple syrup and pull the pans off and we filter it into the filter tank and then take it inside the cookhouse to finish it. How many gallons are in here right now? Probably about 15 gallons of SAP, yeah. So this would probably make less than a gallon of syrup. How many gallons of Maple syrup do you end up producing at the end of the year? We made 35 this year, in 55 last year and what about you in 27 this year, in around 30 last year. But we've been as big as we're, we've cooked up. To 100 gallons on the open pens. You guys need some canning jars. They're in the way in the basement. There's a season to this. True, true, and generally speaking if things are very early this year. Seasons years ago used to be 10 to 15 To March to the 10th, 15th of April. There is trees being tapped in early February all over. You also have to watch out for if the frogs croak twice after the killing frost is going to be a good season. Not early, but if we have an early SAP moon, we could have an early season for the sugar to properly be released. And have certain amount of daylight in that day and then it happens around the 15th of March. Would you say about a frog, I'm not letting you get away with that. You say if the Krog Frog, the frog frog twice after the killing frost, you're going to have a normal syrup season. That's what my grandma has told us. We're talking about the fall now. Yeah. What are the ways that you get rid of all the Maple syrup friends and family since we rent our trees, we don't own all of our trees. We always give syrup back. Some markets like yard sales or? Through sales and things like that. But word of mouth, what does it mean to you guys now to kind of continue to pass on a legacy? Just imagine if somebody sees this or hears this a parent or a child and they can say I can do that. I got 1 Maple tree, I could put one tap in, I can get one quart of syrup and then next year I could maybe do 4. Wisconsin last year was the 4th largest Maple syrup producer in the United States. It's all the little guys that are are tapping, you know, a tree that they borrow from a neighbor. Or a tree that they find on their land. But when you look at the jar and go I did this. It's all natural. Nothing added. I made this with my own sweat and tears and lessons learned. I made this as if there was any other way to end an episode. We eat. Thanks for letting us tell your family story guys. This is been really cool. So let me just make sure that you guys get what you have come in. There you go. This will be mine. OK, yeah, No, no, no. What's in your stack of pancakes after making Maple syrup for a month, month and a half? Usually there's no Maple syrup for pancakes here. Mean Mark. But yeah, just two is fine. 2 is fine. Alright, grab one for yourself. There's there's always a. Ohh yeah it's kind of like opening a can of Miller Light and a little goes a long way. Or no uses much as you want. Alright taste test time. Hmm. They're not going to be a Pringle 1:00. I don't wanna talk anymore. You guys go ahead and close it out. I'm done. Really, really cool. I mean, this is about as deep rooted of history as we've told on deeper roots. Just want to say thanks. Thanks for having us out. I mean, 170 years. That's what Wisconsin is. It's just a whole bunch of deep rooted stories that we all live and we think they're worth telling. So thanks again. All right. Peace out. We'll see you next time. I'm good. Not really Eat. It's the you probably eat. Do it. Come on now. I'm 68, man, that's a long way down. Look, going over, obviously we don't worry about FDA licenses when it comes to this type of stuff. But I mean what is the end game? Ohh, we invite people to do podcast. Here we are Spile. It's called the spore. If you want to go old school and Canadian spool ohh hey. How many gallons of SAP you make have to have? I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. Let's just eat some pancake. Big fan of pancakes with that Wisconsin Maple syrup courtesy of the Briar family and 170 years of Legacy. Thanks for having us out. A special shout out to Paula who submitted this incredibly deep rooted family story on the website farmandfleet.com/deeper. Roots J dug the whole family. It was great to see and meet you guys. If you have a story you'd like us to share, head to that website just like Paula did. Farmandfleet.com/deeper Roots If you're watching on YouTube like us, subscribe. Let us know what you loved in the comments below. And if you're listening on the podcast side, go ahead and leave us a five star review there as well. See you next time. Talk to you later. Bye.