Adamskis Mean Business With Maple

The Adamski family, Gary, Vicky and Jim, mean business when the mapling season arrives.

That’s what it is at the family’s sugar bush on Winter Road south of Antigo.

This is a hobby that got out of control, Jim Adamski, who has become a maple professional, said as the polished stainless steel evaporator roared in the background.

The Adamskis, who started with pans heated by wood fires, then to a professional a professional evaporator also heated by wood, have advanced to the steel, natural gas-fed closed equipment to make the moisture reductions in the maple sap. It is a precise procedure, the syrup is light amber and exceptionally sweet — that’s as good as it gets.

Vicky Adamski said during the months when the sap wasn’t running, the family worked a long process of getting their product designed as organic.

That was very difficult, she said, explaining that inspectors spent plenty of time at the sugar bush and it was necessary to replace some beams that used chemically treated wood. It was that carefully done.

The movement to organic products has been well documented across the United States, and the Adamskis sense from market demand that the syrup being produced will be a very brisk demand item.

But Jim and Vicky understand their final products are all in the hands of Mother Nature.

We’ve had early starts before, Jim explained Monday afternoon, but the key is to having evening temperatures into the range of freezing.

That keeps the sap moving through the tree to the taps and long tubing lines to collection tanks.

Certainly some of the romance is missing. The Norman Rockwell-like paintings of a horse-drawn collection process and wood-fired evaporators are gone at the Adamski sugar bush.

Vicky recalled those days of old saying the family spent most of the summer collecting and cutting firewood, from 60 to 80 cords per year, to fuel the evaporator.

Then that natural gas line arrived, she added. And then, so did the elegant equipment used today.

Jim and Vicky agreed they are moving ahead, as long as temperatures cooperate.

With our organic designation and the exceptional quality we are able to produce, we are looking toward a great 2016, they said.

Vicky Adamski and her son, Jim in their sugar bush evaporator room. It’s very high tech.

Source: Antigo Daily Journal