As the weather starts to change, the maple tree in the back yard starts to drip sap. It’s not a sugar maple, so it wouldn’t make a sweet syrup. Plus you need a lot of sap to make syrup.

Georgie talks about making syrup in the notes she wrote about growing up in West Point. On the Bruegenhempke place, there was a row of soft maples north of the house. Sometimes they collected the sap and cooked it down.

Her great-uncle Ben Wellman had a sugar camp in the timber, and in the spring collected maple water. In February, when it froze at night and warmed in the daytime, they collected maple water in buckets. Maple season in Iowa lasts 3 to 4 weeks.

Image shows a group of people standing together. there are trees with buckets hanging on them in the background.
The three youngest boys are Georgie’s uncles Ben, Tony, and Al Wellman. You can see the buckets hanging on the tress.

Aunt Teresa would make maple sugar candy in a pan with molds which all had different designs on the bottom. You can buy or make your own maple sugar candy today. It is often shaped in molds that look like a maple leaf.

The Bruegenhempke place is near the upper right corner here (labeled G. Wellman). Ben and Teresa Wellman lived on the property just north of the road (labeled Kasper Nolte on this map).

Digging Deeper

This is an interesting article on the history of making maple syrup posted by the Maple Valley Syrup cooperative.