Eckert Tree Farm

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Our Story

It's almost impossible to get this quality of syrup any more. Here's why: Today, the only easily profitable way to supply syrup to a large population is to automate the processing and remove as many labor costs as possible. We have not done that. The large producer (which we definitely are not) must deliver their sap to the evaporator with miles of plasticizer-laden tubing and a vacuum pump. It is of course impossible to eliminate all plastics from modern food processing, but we have always striven to eliminate as much as we possibly can because of concerns about health impacts. So, we carry it by hand, which also allows us to see and discard the occasional low quality, off-tasting sap known in the industry as “bud sap.” Large producers often use (unsustainable) oil or propane to fire their evaporator. We use wood that we cut sustainably as we do timber-stand improvement on our tree farm. To decrease bottling costs, many use plastic bottles or plastic lined cans. We use only glass. So, call us a throw-back. We’ll never do it any other way. You’ll find “pure” maple syrup quite easily, but you’ll not easily find syrup that is exceeds the organic standard by eliminating contaminants and low quality sap that are unavoidable when using plastic tubing. We know it’s unrealistic for large producers to do so. We understand that, and real maple syrup - any way it's produced - is still a lot healthier than the fake stuff. Purchase it comfortably if that's all you have access to. Ours is just better. If you do purchase some syrup, we ask that you try a teaspoon of it all by itself, at room temperature, and notice the flavor notes like you would those of a fine wine. Prepare to be amazed. PLASTIC We want to clarify why we work so hard to eliminate plastic. First, let's be realistic. It's likely impossible to get the impact of plastic out of our diet. Where you do use plastics, crosslinked polyethylene (with no UV stabilizer or pigment) is the most stable, and least likely to leach anything into the liquids it contains. So, where we do use plastics' that's what we use (pure polyethylene milk jugs on the tree to capture sap, and in our transfer/storage tank) To be clear: We don't want to "run down" producers that must use tubing. We just want you to know that there is an alternative if you can get a tubing free producer. We're concerned about the health impact of plastic in our diets and think we should all eliminate it anywhere we can. http://www.scientificamerican.com/.../bpa-free-plastic.../ BAD SAP This is an off-color sap (normal sap is as clear as mountain spring water) that has components which impart an "off" taste to the sap. It takes expert taste buds to pick up on it when mixed with hundreds of gallons of clear sap, but because we can eliminate it, we do. When the producer is tapping trees, every once in a while, the tap-hole will cross into some decaying wood. It’s almost impossible to know every time this happens. If you connect tubing to the spout that comes from that hole, you’ll never know you’re getting “bad sap” from that tap. If you hang a milk-jug, like we do, you’ll always know and can eliminate that tap. Some trees show their “bad-wood-sap later in the season than others, perhaps as the inner part of the tree fully thaws. We eliminate all bad taps as they become apparent. This is impossible in pipeline systems, as it is in the old galvanized buckets, where the darkness of the buckets make it impossible to easily see the sap color. CARBON FOOTPRINT The easiest way to reduce carbon footprint is to use wood instead of oil or propane. Next is to reduce boiling time, which can be done with Reverse Osmosis, which removes much of the water in sap so there is less to "boil out". Finally, if you use good forestry practices such that the biomass held per acre is at its maximum, more carbon can be held per acre. We do the latter, but do not use RO as we feel the longer boil time is in-part responsible for our unique flavor profile. Our 50 acres supplies all of the wood we need, simply by selecting for diseased and damaged trees for our firewood. The healthy trees grow faster because we remove the competition.http://www.rff.org/.../WorkImages/Download/RFF-DP-01-34.pdf