The small, rustic, wood-engraved sign at the edge of the gravel drive into the woods simply says: Sugar Camp. It’s fitting for an endeavor that goes back generations and involves an informal partnership between two families that aren’t even related.

“My grandpa Willis Schenck and the Legg family built a sugar shed in this woods in the1950s, and made maple syrup together ever since,” explains Shad Schenck. A representative for Specialty Hybrids by trade, he’s helped keep the maple syrup tradition going. In fact, he was the driving force in replacing the old sugar shed with a new one two years ago.

Jay Young, who married into the maple syrup-making tradition when he and Sherry Legg married, says that working with Schenck, they cut lumber from the woods for the new building. It was milled in Wallace, Ind. Several walnut logs were harvested and sold to help pay for erecting the new shed. Amish from Middlebury framed the building, and both families and plenty of community volunteers finished the construction.

The tradition of making maple syrup goes back much farther than the 1950s. “My brother, Shane, and I are the 13th generation to make maple syrup,” says Makhalea Young, Jay and Sherry’s daughter. She’s a senior in agricultural communication at Purdue University. Shane is a freshman in the John Deere technician program at Lake Land College in Mattoon, Ill.

Related:Make room for family time

Makhalea notes that they put out about 1,200 buckets in four woods each spring. In a good year, they produce around 160 gallons of maple syrup.

“We have dozens of community people who help us, and we trade labor for syrup,” Jay says. “We try to sell enough to pay for bottles and other supplies each year. Sales is mostly by word of mouth. One reason we do it is to educate other people, especially kids, and just get people involved.”

Making maple syrup

Once sap runs in sugar maple trees, usually beginning in February and continuing for a month or so, trees are tapped, Makhalea explains. “We’ve got converted milk tanks to help hold the sap we collect until we can boil it down,” she continues. “When we’re ready to boil, we build a fire under the two pans which make up our commercial evaporator. Sap feeds into the pans by gravity.”

Makhalea notes that the front pan has two channels with flues, which allows for a greater surface area so more sap boils at once. The back pan has four shallower channels that are directly over the fire. As sap cooks, water evaporates, leaving pure sap, she says. During the process, the sap naturally flows through each channel in the evaporator.  

It takes about 50 gallons of sap to produce a gallon of maple syrup, Makhalea says. “We use a hydrometer to tell when it’s ready to move to the finishing vat. That’s usually when it’s about 219 degrees F.”

Once it’s ready to leave the finishing vat, it goes through a press which contains several filters to remove any remaining impurities. From the time sap enters the building until it’s bottled, it goes through four separate filtering processes, Jay notes.

From the final filtering process, syrup moves to the bottling station. “We heat it back up so that the wax seals will melt and seal properly,” Makhalea says.

The quality of the syrup varies based on sugar content, she says. Early in the season, sap tends to contain more sugar. The syrup produced from that sap is lighter. As the season progresses and sugar content drops, the syrup tends to become darker.

“It’s a family activity and something we love to do,” Makhalea says. “It’s a community tradition.”

Click through the slideshow to see photos of the maple syrup making process.