Weekend celebrates Indiana's Maple Syrup producers

The Herald Bulletin

Staff Photographer/Health Reporter

ANDERSON — Interested in local food? Want to see how syrup is made? This weekend you can as part of Indiana Maple Weekend.

The event is held by the Indiana Maple Syrup Association on the second weekend in March.

According to the group’s Facebook page, the event will go ahead as scheduled this weekend with the exception of Twin Lakes Camp in Fountain County.

You can find a list of participating sugar camps along with contact information on the group’s website, indianamaplesyrup.org.

In Madison County you can see how syrup is made at Stix2°Brix. The name is a reference to the syrup making process that starts with the sap at 2 degrees brix — a measurement of the sugar content — and is boiled until enough water is burned off as steam to raise the sugar content to 66 degrees brix.

The sugar camp is a converted chicken house on a fifth generation Madison County farm located at 3381 South 500 West.

A trip to New England in 2010 inspired Eric Lee to start making syrup.

“I had visited several different sugar camps there and got the idea of why aren’t we doing this, because we have maple trees,” said Lee.

After conferring with his brother-in-law Gerald Riffey, sister Nadine Riffey and nephew Grant Riffey the family decided to start making syrup. Their first season was 2017.

The family farms corn and soybeans. The syrup business is more of a hobby.

“It’s very (labor) intense,” Lee said. ‘It’s a lot of hours and we couldn’t do it without a whole lot of family and friend volunteers.”

The family has one patch of woods where gravity helps collect the sap through tubes. Most of the sap, however, is collected from buckets and bags by hand.

Freezing temperatures at night coupled with thawing temperatures during the day get the sap flowing.

“You have to be ready to go in January and then you hope for anywhere from four to eight weeks, depending on the weather,” Lee said.

The taps were pulled last Saturday after collecting 5,000 gallons of sap. At a 50-1 ratio, that will yield 100 gallons of syrup.

Besides syrup, other products offered will be syrup aged in bourbon barrels, maple cotton candy, and maple cream — sap taken to the candy stage and then wiped.

They will also have goods made with maple syrup.

“I would say that our goal is to introduce the local community, maybe even reintroduce it to maple syrup and all the things you can do with maple syrup,” Lee said.

“We don’t want people to think it’s solely about putting it on pancakes and waffles because you can use it anytime you use a sweetener,” he added.

Nearby in Henry County north of U.S. 36 on County Road 100 East is Rutherford Sugar Camp, a fifth generation sugar camp dating back to 1910.

“Maple Weekend is an opportunity for people to see what we do and how we do it, and to increase awareness of Indiana maple products,” said Dave Hamilton, president of the Indiana Maple Syrup Association and the second generation of the four-generation Rutherford Sugar Camp.

Follow Don Knight on Twitter

@donwknight, or call

765-622-1212, ext. 204567.

Follow Don Knight on Twitter

@donwknight, or call

765-622-1212, ext. 204567.

Stix2°Brix is located at 3381 South County Road 500 West in Madison County and will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Rutherford Sugar Camp is located at 6025 North County Road 100 East in Henry County and will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Staff Photographer/Health Reporter

Meet your Best of Madison County 2023.

Graduations, games or events, order prints of your favorites photos from The Herald Bulletin.