T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Syrup made from Grammer Grove maple tree sap is poured over three pancakes at the Grimes Farm Trees to Table breakfast. This was the first time the conservation department was able to tap the trees since the 2020 derecho.

Real syrup flowed smoothly over stacks of pancakes at the annual Trees to Table Pancake Feed on Saturday morning.

Marshall County Conservation Director Emily Herring said 200 to 300 people came for the breakfast.

“We usually have a nice crowd,” she said. “It’s a fun event. Some people don’t come out for other events, but they come to the pancake feed.”

Danny Nelson was there to volunteer, bussing tables and pouring coffee.

“I had pancakes a little after 7 a.m. with the syrup and sausage,” he said. “The pancakes were big and fluffy and the syrup was over the top. It’s really good.”

As attendees enjoyed their flapjacks and sausages, they learned more about the harvest of sap from Grammer Grove maple trees, which is cooked down into syrup.

“The syrup is just the sugars left over in the sap from the trees,” Herring said. “The maple syrup is 100 percent organic from Marshall County.”

Herring said this is the best tasting syrup, and it goes quickly.

“It is so good, and if anybody has not had the opportunity to have it, I would definitely encourage pure maple syrup. Even the store bought [real] stuff does not compare to ours, but that may be a personal opinion,” she said, laughing.

Maple sap harvest can only take place during certain times of the year, specifically when there are fluctuating temperatures – below freezing and more than 40. The temperature fluctuation creates a vacuum which sucks the sap from the roots up into the trunk. It can then drip out of the placed tap.

This was the first time staff was able to tap the Grammer Grove trees, as Herring said they were hit hard by the 2020 derecho. She described this year as a trial run.

“We didn’t tap every single tree, because we’re seeing how the trees are responding from the damage they received,” Herring said. “I think next year we will make maple syrup. We’re going to inventory the trees this summer, see which ones are alive and have decent canopies, which ones will produce sap. That way we can do the math, because we need a certain amount of sap to be able to run our evaporator, which is pretty large and more for large-scale production of maple syrup.”

A different route they took this year was inviting the public to obtain some collected sap so they could cook it down themselves at home. Cooking the sap down is necessary, because Herring said there is a lot of water.

“Collecting the sap is the hardest part,” she said. “When you get it home, you can just cook it down on the stove. With the warmer weather now, the trees are starting to bud out, and the flavor of the sap changes. So, we’ve stopped collecting the sap this year.”

Unfortunately, since the derecho, the opportunity for residents to purchase bottles of Trees to Table syrup has been extremely limited. Herring hopes next year they will be able to sell, but it depends on what the trees give.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or bradstream@timesrepublican.com.