New ‘Maple King’ has syrup in his veins

WEST SALISBURY, Pa. (AP) - Since Jason Blocher was young his grandmother always told him: “The sugar gets in your blood.”

After more than 30 years in the maple business, Blocher said that he surely has syrup in his veins.

Blocher has been producing maple syrup at his family’s sugar camp, Milroy Farms in Elk Lick Township, since he was too small to carry a keeler.

“I loved to be in the woods when I was young,” he said. “But I was too small to carry the 7-gallon bucket. I carried the much smaller 2-gallon bucket.

“I was really not any help, but they allowed me to go along.”

For the past 150 years maple syrup has been produced at the site of Milroy Farms. Blocher’s grandparents, Mildred and Roy, bought the farm in 1942.

Blocher said many people think Milroy is his last name, but the farm’s name is a mash-up of his grandparents’ first names.

“They had to give the farm a name when my grandparents bought the farm and the county extension agent at the time recommended combining their names,” he said.

This year was Blocher’s first time being named Maple King at the Pennsylvania Maple Festival in Meyersdale. He said the distinction is an honor for the entire sugar camp, not just one person.

“No sugar operation can be done by one person,” he said. “It belongs to the whole group of people.”

The maple king is chosen at the beginning of each Maple Festival by the Somerset County Maple Producers Association. To be entered, a camp must submit entries to eight of the 10 different maple classes for judging. The camp with the highest overall score is crowned king.

In addition to driving in the Maple Festival parade, Blocher will also attend dinners and events throughout the year and participate in the annual tree tapping ceremony in February.

“I enjoy being king,” Blocher said. “I want to do well at representing our industry to the public.”

He said public relations is a big part of his job at the sugar camp. Often, people from all over the country will be driving through the area and see signs for Milroy Farms. When they pull in to buy syrup, Blocher gives them a tour of the camp and teaches them about the long and arduous process of making maple syrup.

“Most people don’t realize how much labor and effort goes into the production of 1 gallon of syrup,” he said.

Before tubing systems, maple producers emptied keelers by hand. Now about 10,000 out of 12,000 trees are tapped with a vacuum tubing system.

Although workers don’t have to empty the sugar water by hand, they still have to walk through the woods to make sure no squirrels, deer or tree limbs have knocked down the tubes.

Blocher said this year he is installing a monitoring system that alerts him of any tubes that have fallen. Each year newer technology is implemented to optimize the camp’s labor force.

In an average year Blocher said his camp produces about 3,500 gallons of maple syrup. This year, however, the warm weather caused maple production to go down throughout the area.

“The weather got too warm in March. If we had the weather of the past two weeks, it would’ve made a difference,” he said. “A lot of factors go into that. So much is dependent on Mother Nature.”

Blocher said maple production is a seven-week-long fight with Mother Nature.

“You look forward to the beginning of the year and by the end you’re looking forward to the end of it,” he said.

In December Blocher and the other workers are out checking tubing lines for damage. By February workers are drilling holes in trees and cleaning the systems. The system collects sugar water until May. After the season, workers are upgrading vacuum pumps and other preparations before December comes again.

“We turn around and do it again the following year and hope we do better or as good as last year,” Blocher said. “If I went to (Las) Vegas or a casino and thought, ’We’ll do better today,’ people would tell us we have a disease. We’re just farming. We take the gamble all the time.

“Without a question, it gets in your blood.”

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Information from: Daily American, https://www.dailyamerican.com