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Sauk Rapids Herald | Saturday, March 21, 2020
Tapping trees
Bowlus man harvests sap in backyard BY JAKOB KOUNKEL STAFF WRITER
BOWLUS – Mike Skroch used to have a hobby. He would tap maple trees, collect the syrup in 5-gallon pails and haul each individually, by hand, to his house where he processed the syrup in a cast-iron, 35-gallon kettle. Now, Skroch has a
new lifestyle. The tapped sap, which was previously evaporated outside over an open flame, is now produced hundreds of gallons at a time and can be found on shelves in stores like The Pantry in Sartell, Grand Champion Meats in Foley under their own brand label and Coborn’s grocery stores under the Four Brothers brand. On his property in Bowlus, where he owns and operates The Syrup Ranch, Skroch selects the same sugar maple trees he first tapped as a novice. But even from the beginning, Skroch was
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While checking on sap lines, Mike Skroch ensures the taps on the sugar maple trees are in tact at The Syrup Ranch in Bowlus March 14. He taps each tree in two locations as a vacuum pumps the sap through piping to a storage container.
no beginner. Somewhat new to maple syrup production, he entered into a few county fairlevel competitions and, after taking first place at the Morrison County Fair, he took first place at the Minnesota State Fair’s maple syrup competition. “In 2014, we entered into the state fair,” Skroch said. “Three grades they had at the time: light, medium and dark, and we just threw it in there just to see how we did, and we ended up getting first place in all three.” The next year, Skroch and his wife, Jacleen, took home the Best in Show award from the Minnesota Maple Syrup Producers Association. Best in Show served as an effective form of advertising, Skroch said, snowballing into calls from restaurants and stores in various cities in search of his maple syrup. As demand increased so did means of production. Skroch doubled his output and labor every year until stumbling into PHOTOS BY JAKOB KOUNKEL an opportunity that he could not squander: a Mike and Jacleen Skroch stand in front an equipment building at The Syrup Ranch in Bowlus March 14. The building holds equipment to aid in extracting sap from sugar Skroch page 2B maple trees.
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