Maple Madness

Maple Contests & Event Reminders

by at

With a host of wins logged at the International level (more on that later…), let’s be sure to represent in our own state contests.  At this year’s Ohio Maple Days (December 6th), there will be two contests.

First, a maple confections contest with the categories of candy, granulated sugar, and maple spread.  The entry deadline is December 6th in person at the Ashland facility by 9 AM or you can send your entry to Richards Maple Products at 545 Water Street, Chardon, OH 44024 to meet the mail-in entry deadline of December 4th.  A big thanks to Jen Freeman for volunteering to organize the confections competition.  You can find full details by downloading the 2025 OMPA candy contest score sheet.

Second, winners of the John Berry Maple Contest will be announced at the same event.  Ribbons will be awarded to the top three places in each class (Golden Delicate, Amber, Dark, Very Dark) as well as a plaque awarded to the best overall syrup score by a Small Sugar Maker and for the Hilton Farley distinction of best-in-show.  All samples must be dropped off or shipped (along with a John Berry Contest Entry Form 2025) to one of the following 4 locations by November 22, 2025.  For any questions or clarifications, reach directly out to Galen Smith at 740-398-3373.

  • OMPA Table at Lake Erie Maple Expo
  • Richards Maple Products (545 Water Street, Chardon, OH 44024)
  • Gortner Maple (1222 TWP Rd 13, West Salem, OH 44287)
  • Galen Smith (12860 Henry Road, Mount Vernon, OH 43050)

Which brings us to Ohio Maple Days.  Registration is open for the main event on Saturday, December 6.  And please consider attending Friday’s Maple Grading Workshop that will be held at the same facilities from 10 AM-3 PM on Dec 5.

Maple Madness Tour Sign-up

by at

Sign up for the 2026 Maple Madness Tour is here.  You do not need to be a maple syrup producer in order to be a tour stop.  Local restaurants that use pure maple syrup, breweries that make maple beer, farmer’s markets with maple soaps or candles – all are welcome to participate!

The tour is noticeably later in 2026 because of how the calendar falls.  It has traditionally been the 1st and 2nd weekends of March, so please notice the 2026 dates in particular.  While many producers may not be making syrup, particularly by the second weekend, that’s okay.  If the season is wrapped up, you will have a better chance to clean up, present a tidy sugarhouse, spend more time talking to maple enthusiasts, and spend less energy trying to avoid scorching a pan!  Beyond maple, consider other activities that you can provide for tour participants – tractor rides, games for the kids, just about anything that falls under farm tourism and probably much much more.

Full details are included on the Maple Madness Registration Form-2026, but it is worth noting that your Ohio Maple Producers Association annual membership is included in the tour fee.  The sign-up deadline is November 14th, so don’t delay!  Please contact Jen Freeman (440-487-1660; jen@richardsmapleproducts.com) if you have any questions.

Maple Events on the Horizon

by at

Join Associate Professor, Dr. Stephen Matthews to learn about USDA Forest Service’s Climate Change Atlas.  He will introduce this tool that is based on over 2 decades of research with a goal to help us understand the impact of climate change on our trees. When you have heard us talk about red maple’s favorable position in the face of an uncertain future, the work of the Climate Change Atlas is what we are drawing from.  Register for the April 12th webinar HERE.

Future Generations University is offering a webinar this Thursday evening, March 21st at 7 PM.  The Appalachian-based program Out of the Woods hosts guest speaker Dr. Catherine Belisle (Cornell University) and Lindsay Kazarick (Future Generations University) to discuss maple confections and event-based marketing. REGISTER here.

Here’s a little bonus video to enjoy featuring Cornell University’s Arnot Teaching and Research Forest in New York.

SAVE THE DATE for 2024’s Ohio Maple Days – December 7.  We will be shifting locations this year due to a scheduling conflict at our normal venue at Ashland University.  You can look forward to this year’s Ohio Maple Days landing at Wooster’s Secrest Arboretum.

And speaking of events, we hope everyone got to participate in Ohio’s Maple Madness Tour.  Whether by opening up your own operation to visitors or by venturing out on the tour yourself, Maple Madness is a signature springtime event that should not be missed.  We hosted somewhere just shy of 100 folks throughout Saturday, March 2nd at the Ohio State Mansfield campus.  Thanks to all who came, and a BIG THANKS to everyone who led tours of the wetlands, sugarbush, and kept the evaporator steaming all day long.

 

Ohio Maple NPR Soundbyte

by at

You are never quite sure how a piece of media coverage will turn out after a couple of hours of interaction gets boiled down (yes, that’s a pun) to 4 minutes and 30 seconds.  But I’d say the NPR creative machine did a great job churning out something engaging that highlights work across the state from the past, present, and even into the future.

This is as good of a time as any to remind everyone of Ohio’s Maple Madness weekends on March 2-3 and March 9-10.  You can scan the following QR code off your monitor or visit the Tour Map to plot your own route.

At Ohio State Mansfield, we will be hosting our Maple Madness event on Saturday, March 2nd – we hope to see you there.  Come hungry!

Buckeye Teaching Evaporator: The First Boil!

by at

Exciting developments at the Ohio State University-Mansfield campus!  We installed a teaching maple evaporator under our new pavilion near the research sugarbush and just completed our first boil last night.  This step is fairly monumental for Ohio State Maple, and there isn’t anything quite like the feeling of seeing that first draw-off.  Somehow we’ve got a grainy image of that moment last night to commemorate the experience!

First things first – a formal thank you to Roger and Suzie Gortner for continuing to do our production sap processing.  They have made exceptional maple syrup from our OSU trees for the past 5 years and will continue to be instrumental in that regard.  We literally could not do it without them, and we’re grateful that it’s an arrangement that works for both parties involved.

But now for the first time ever, we have our own evaporator.  No, it is not sized to keep up with a production woods of almost 1,200 taps, but it is perfectly sized for demonstration boils on a teaching scale.  With help from local producer Galen Smith from Mount Vernon, OH, our team set up an 18” x 66” drop flue evaporator early in winter of 2023-24.  After a test boil to dummy out a few variables (or maybe to dummy out the dummies…us!?), we put fire under sap concentrate on Wednesday, February 14th – Valentine’s Day.

Four 5/16″ lines kept sap flowing from our larger sap tank into a holding chamber that our reverse osmosis unit was drawing off.  We adjusted the PSI on our RO to almost perfectly sync and match the raw sap movement with our RO processing speed.  After some adjustments to align the 2 processes, we were taking sap from 2.1 to 4.6 Brix concentrate.  6 hours later, we were halfway there…

Eventually, we crept up to 7 degrees F over the point of boiling water.  You know what happens next.

A teaching evaporator with small-scale RO unit allows us to now teach via-demonstration tree-to-bottle workshops and seminars on an Ohio State campus, provide more complete tours for events like the upcoming Maple Madness event on Saturday, March 2nd (more on that in a second), and sets the table for a new Sustainability Theme GE course debuting in Spring of 2025 – Maple: A Sweet Taste of the Past, Present, & Future.

So yes, come visit us on Saturday, March 2nd at the OSU-Mansfield Maple Pavilion.  We are excited to host folks for pancakes and syrup between 10 AM-1 PM, tours of the sugarbush and nearby vernal pool wetlands all day long until 5 PM, and good fellowship with one another for the Ohio Maple Madness Tour.  Once you are on campus, just follow the signs!

2021 Ohio Maple Madness Spring Tour

by at

Get ready for the Ohio Maple Madness Spring Tour that starts the Saturday and Sunday of March 6th and 7th and spills over to the next week, March 13-14 as well.  Inside the Spring Tour guide is a list of producers who look forward to hosting you during this year’s tour.

Get Ready!! 2021 Ohio Maple Madness Spring Tour

by at

The Ohio Maple Madness Spring Tour is scheduled for March 6th & 7th and March 13th & 14th.  The bookended Saturdays / Sundays event will be similar to the fall tour.  Whatever COVID-19 protocols are issued by our governor at that time will be in place for the Spring Tour.

Anyone interested in joining the 2021 Ohio Maple Madness tour should reach out to Fred or Jen at Richards Maple ASAP.  Fred’s email is fred@richardsmapleproducts.com and Jen’s is jen@richardsmapleproducts.com.  You can also call Fred Ahrens 330-206-1606 to get more information and lock in your spot on the tour.

More information will be going out to OMPA members and the event will be advertised across an array of websites and social media outlets.  The deadline to be listed in the printed advertisements has already passed, but there is still time to join the Tour and be listed in digital ads.  The fee is $90 per stop.  The cost includes OMPA membership/benefits for a year, covers IMSI/NAMSC dues for a year, and makes sure your maple operation is a part of this year’s 2021 Maple Madness Tour!

If know that you want to participate in this spring’s Maple Madness tour, reach out ASAP to Fred or Jen and have your bio, open hours, address, and any new maple recipes ready to send to the following address:

Ohio Maple Madness Tour
545 Water Street
Chardon, OH 44024