Simpson's Rocky Ridge Maple Syrup

04/14/2026

2026 Season Wrap Up

The 2026 maple season is officially in the books — and what a year for our 100th season of making syrup on the farm. While it was a good season, it was also one of the more unusual seasons we’ve seen.

The weather kept swinging between cold snaps and sudden warm ups. But the good news is this weather pattern is often the recipe for good sap flow, as the trees keep “waking up” again and again. This year also avoided long stretches of deep cold or extended warm spells, both of which can reduce the sap season.

What really stood out this year for us was the low sugar content in the sap. Many Wisconsin producers saw a similar thing. Instead of the usual 2–3% sugar (which takes about 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup), we were seeing 1.5–2%. That means 50–60 gallons of sap for every gallon of syrup. (For the curious: divide 86 by the sap’s sugar percentage — the old “Rule of 86.”) As a result, while our syrup production was slightly above normal, our wood pile suffered.

Now it’s time to pull taps, clean equipment (ugh), and start bottling.

Stay tuned here for photos and stories from across our 100 years of making maple syrup.

03/25/2026

A Good Sap Day

Last week was wild, starting out with over a foot of snow and below zero temperatures on Monday and ending with temperatures in the 60s on Friday (it sure acted its role of being the Spring Equinox).

Saturday, March 21, was more like mid-April with a high temperature over 70 and lots of sunshine. It was good weather for relatives who came out with younger children. Despite the warm weather with no recent freezes, the sap was running, and we were able to show the kids how to tap a tree and see the sap gush out. They loved tasting it. They also got to see Eric cooking syrup, even sampling some fresh maple syrup on ice cream (most all snow is gone).

What a difference a day can make this time of year. Sunday, March 22, was blustery with freezing temperatures, quite a contrast from Saturday. Some sap lines were frozen, creating some extra work. However, that contrast was just what the maple trees needed to generate what was so far the best sap day of the season on Monday, March 23rd. Many trees were dripping sap faster than you could count and sap was running down the sap lines, filling the tanks.

We tapped some trees that were missed in the earlier tapping, including a tree that dates back to when our Grandfather first started making syrup here in 1926. Looks like there will be lots of sap for Eric to cook on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Stay tuned to see what Mother Nature has in store this next week.

03/14/2026

Tapping Into Spring — Centennial Season Update

In March of 1926, our grandfather and his friend Ed Hunt snowshoed their way into the Rocky Ridges of the Barron Blue Hills and began tapping maple trees. This month, we carry that tradition into the 2026 Centennial season.

This Winter has been a roller coaster—warm spells, sharp cold snaps, and what feels like two different springs already: one in early January and then again on Valentines Day.

We began tapping on February 23, when temperatures jumped from below zero into the 20s. Half the woods were tapped that week when a forecast of several unseasonable warm days caused us to pause and wait. Maple trees typically do not run much sap without freezing, so the tap holes (normally good for 30 days) would just age with little sap production.

A solid freeze on March 7 kicked off our first major sap run and boil of the season. Surprisingly, the sap was only 1.7% sugar compared to the normal 2.5% - 3.0%. We do not know why, but nature is the boss.

Now, with more snow and unseasonably cold weather in the forecast this weekend, we will tap the rest of the trees and see what happens next. Odd as it seems, these extreme temperature swings with snow may provide the conditions for a good sap season.

We’ll keep you posted as this Centennial season unfolds.

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10/15/2025

Colors of Sugarbush

We all hope you had a great summer.

As you probably know, this summer we had a lot of hot and humid weather with frequent rains. This was good for the forest and the maple trees; I am sure they made plenty of carbohydrates that can be turned into sugar this spring.

The start of Fall has been a bit disappointing as far as leaf color is concerned. We had our first freeze last week, and now the leaves are coming into more brilliant colors as shown in the attached video.

Our sugarbush will be 100 years old in 2026. To celebrate, we will be posting old videos of making syrup “back in the day” as well as special offers that will be available only to our faithful Facebook friends.

I have posted a short Fall video with a sample of “Autumn Fancy” written by Warren Nelson. This is a fun song, please check it out on YouTube.

Best wishes for the Fall season…

Ted

04/21/2025

End of 2025 Season

We hope all of you had a great Easter celebration! Easter often seems to mark the end of the syrup season. Last year Easter was relatively early, and so was the season’s end. This year Easter was later, as was the season.

More reliable factors showing the end is near are the tree frogs singing and the Crocus flowers breaking through the ground. Eric first heard some tree frogs singing on April 14th and by the 15th the Crocus flowers were blooming.

This has been a good maple syrup season with cooler temperatures allowing the sap to flow for a longer time and higher sap sugar percentages. The cooler temperatures have also produced more Amber syrup, with smaller amounts of the darker grades. For those who like dark, rich maple syrup we suggest you order early before our supply runs out. You can purchase Rocky Ridge maple syrup on eBay. For more information and links for ordering our maple syrup, see our website: RMapleSyrup.com. We also sell maple syrup products at local festivals, and I will be posting festivals we attend on Facebook, perhaps one will work for you.

Our last sap run was on Wednesday, April 16th. A hard freeze Tuesday night followed by warming temperatures and sun on Wednesday produced a good sap flow on all the latter taps. The earlier taps on the sap lines have aged to the point they are no longer producing enough sap to make collection feasible, so we are pulling taps and cleaning lines and tanks. We made our last sap collection and cooking on Thursday, April 17 (see video).

Best wishes for a wonderful Spring season…

Ted

04/13/2025

04/09/2025

April Fools in the Sugar Bush

The week started out as a classic April Fool’s joke with new snow and the trees decked out in their finest Jewelry. It was too cold for sap to run very much until later Wednesday and Thursday when we had our 3rd big sap run. Again, bags and buckets were filling up and sap was flowing from the tubing lines into the tanks. We gathered sap in an area that was owned by the Ackerman family in the late 1800s (see video). The area was logged some time ago, but now we have brought it back to an excellent maple bush. We cooked syrup and gathered on Friday and Saturday, finishing up gathering the buckets just before a cold snap that could have turned them into ice. Seems like a weekly pattern of cold snaps which, while frustrating to most people, is great for maple syrup producers. If you wanted to write a script for an ideal sap year, this year would be a good template. Looks like we will be back out collecting and cooking later this week, just like last week.

The tap holes are usually good for about a month, so after this week things will be closing down. Stay tuned for further update as the season wraps up.

Ted

03/27/2025

This week in the sugar bush

While frustrating for many people, last week’s weather provided the “ups and downs” needed for good sap runs and a busy week in the sugar bush.

In addition to tapping trees, collecting sap, and cooking syrup, on Tuesday we also passed our USDA and Wisconsin State inspections – a reason to celebrate. Wednesday (3/19) and Thursday (3/20) were the best sap runs of the week, filling buckets and tanks.

In addition to the sap flow, the sugar content was surprisingly high. On Wednesday we tested a few trees near the building that were over 3% sugar and one that was close to 7%. At 3% it takes about 30 gallons of sap for one gallon of syrup. At 7% it takes only 15 gallons compared to the normal (2% sugar) ratio of 45-gals sap to 1 gallon of pure maple syrup.

Friday night we went back into the deep freeze as the temps plummeted down to 15 degrees and remained cold all weekend. We had some snow on Monday morning, but most of the storm went to our East. By Monday afternoon things thawed out and the trees were running again.

Tuesday, March 25, produced a great sap run with a few taps running over 150 drips per minute (see attached video). We gathered buckets, pumped tanks, and Eric cooked syrup. Another freeze is forecasted for this week and that should mean the sap run will continue for a couple days. If this March madness continues, it looks like this year could turn out to be a good Syrup season.

Stay tuned for more season updates...

Ted

05/26/2024

Spring showers bring May flowers, gnats, and mosquitoes...

Yes, Spring is a beautiful season in the sugar bush with ferns, trilliums, blue-bells, forget-me-nots, and other wildflowers popping up. Unfortunately, there was not much time this year between the end of the sap season and the start of bug season. In early May the gnats came out with a vengeance. You really could not take it without netting as they would drive you crazy getting in your ears, nose, and eyes. Anyway, all the taps got pulled and the tanks are clean and stored.

Now the mosquitoes have replaced the gnats and once again
Nature rules the woods....

We hope you have a safe Memorial Day and take time to remember loved ones as well as those that served our country.

Enjoy the short summer season and please stay tuned for more Rocky Ridge maple news. We will be attending a fur trade rendezvous in June and will share some pictures.

Thanks for your support….

Ted

05/06/2024

Well … the 2024 sap season is over, the flowers are blooming, and we are in the process of bottling the maple syrup. The end of the season was very unusual. The syrup color was just getting darker by March 21, and then we got snow and cold weather for about 2 weeks. The weather seemed to reset the trees, for when it warmed up on the week of April 8th the syrup produced was much more like the start of the season in terms of color and flavor. After April 13 we did not receive any more freezing weather, ending the sap season.

Our last batch of syrup was Amber in color (see video). You could say we had two seasons this year, the early season running from early February until March 23, and the late season from April 7 – 13. Overall, it was a slightly below-average sap year, but the tapping and sap collections were much better.

We wish you all a great spring and summer, and thank you for following our page.

Ted