Making maple syrup at Camp American Legion

For the third year in a row Camp American Legion in Lake Tomahawk participated in the spring ritual of making maple syrup. 

Camp American Legion camp director Jim Klement said the idea to make maple syrup came about when he took over as director. He said producing syrup was something he did on his own in the past and thought it could be a positive thing to do with veterans. 

“I’ve done maple syrup in the past on my own and I thought this would be a great way to bring veterans up here for a lot of them to experience … something like this,” Klement said. “I’d like to kind of keep it more of a traditional (experience), so we have a wood fire evaporator. I don’t use the reverse osmosis type stuff so that way everybody kind of gets the feel of what (it takes to make maple syrup) instead of a more automated process.”

Veteran volunteer Jim Busko skims the top of boiling sap while making maple syrup at Camp American Legion on Thursday, March 21, in Lake Tomahawk.
(Photo by Trevor Greene/Lakeland Times)

Typically, Klement noted, it takes roughly 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of maple syrup. 

It’s all weather-dependent, however, and this year tapping maple trees and collecting sap has occurred earlier than usual. 

Maple syrup making at Camp American Legion is available to members of the public as well as the veterans who visit the facility, but there’s no pressure to participate either, Klement indicated. He said the word gets out about Camp American Legion making maple syrup via its social media platforms. 

“This year I had … five people (volunteer) plus my staff, so (a) total (of) seven people,” Klement said of who helped tap trees. 

The Camp American Legion group tapped just over 100 trees this year. 

Those who participated boiled “right around 60 gallons” of sap, which produced right around a gallon and a half of syrup. 

Klement said he’s expecting to make about 10 gallons of syrup, even though Camp American Legion collected roughly 375 gallons of sap. He said the last couple years the ratio of gallons of sap it takes to make one gallon of maple syrup has been 35 to one instead of the typical 40 to one. 

There are multiple benefits to making maple syrup, he noted. 

One of those benefits is having something to do during a time of year where there really isn’t much else to do.

“It gets people outside (to get) some fresh air,” he said. “And also, we do serve the maple syrup during our summer for breakfast. So it’s also cost effective to make our own.”

If anyone is interested in helping Camp American Legion, Klement said they can learn more by visiting the group’s Facebook page. 

There are plenty of other volunteer opportunities, besides maple syrup, for people to help with too, he added.

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].