Page 4 • Country Acres | Friday, April 2, 2021
Tapping into the
“W ildwood”
Maple syrup season brings family back to home farm BY ANNA HAYNES | STAFF WRITER
ST. JOSEPH – Kraemer Lake Wildwood is a county park built around a family-run maple syrup operation. Every spring, Tom and Shelly Carlson, along with their kids, Ben and Addie, extended family and friends venture into the s u g a r bush to tap, boil and bottle. Shelly has been in the sugar bush since she was a child. “I remember taking the generator out there,” Shelly said. “We had corded drills and I had to follow and keep the cords from being tangled. It was a chance to hang out
with my dad’s friends and brothers. My dad died on March 18, 1999. One of the last things my brother did was bring him a sample of the syrup before he died. It was the middle of the sugar season.” S h e l l y ’s father, Wally, began tapping the Wi l d w o o d maple trees in 1979. It was his passion and drive that brought the family out into the forest. The spring after her father passed away, Tom and Shelly had to take over the tapping. “We went out for a walk in the woods that June and noticed all the trees were still tapped,”
PHOTOS BY ANNA HAYNES
(Above) Tom Carlson (from left) and his son, Ben Carlson, show a local tour group the reverse osmosis machine on the back side of the sugar shack March 14 at Kraemer Lake Wildwood maple syrup operation. Listening are Holly Nelson (continuing to right), Adam Nelson, Brenda Hall and Nick Thielen. (Left) Shelly Carlson peers into the boiler as water evaporates, turning maple sap into syrup.
Shelly said. “We knew someone had to take over the operation. We basically did all the work that
Versatility. It runs in the family.
spring, and then we took charge of the operation. A few of my brothers helped out, so it was always a family situation. My mom was also involved at that time.” “When we got the new evaporator in 2004, that was when our family really took on the project,” Tom said. “When the county finally bought the park, it was always an agreement that we’d continue tapping the trees; it was a foregone conclusion.” In 2007, Wildwood
became Kraemer Lake Wildwood County Park. It was important to Shelly’s mother, Dorothy, that Wildwood stay in the name of the park. Shelly’s father named the sugar bush “Wildwood” after his old deer camp in Northern Minnesota. Originally, the patch of land near St Joseph was used for raising registered Morgan horses, but when Wally learned he had a sugar bush, he started tapping his trees. “My brother made birch syrup in Alaska,”
Shelly said. “Fred was tapping trees and I think that’s what got my dad into it. My dad was the kind of person who loved to get things from his land. Maple syrup just made sense.” Wildwood Ranch Maple Syrup remains a family operation. Shelly, Tom, Addie and Ben help out all sugar season. “We all kinda do everything,” Tom said. “Whoever is available.
Wildwood page 5
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