Published 12:30 pm Tuesday, January 4, 2022
CRESWELL, Ore. — Taylor Larson got the idea to start tapping bigleaf maple trees at his family’s Willamette Valley farm in 2015.
That first winter, he collected enough sap in aluminum buckets from two trees to make a few pints of maple syrup. It wasn’t fancy, but it allowed him to see the potential of adding another specialty crop to the farm’s repertoire.
“We’re always looking to add more things to what we do,” said Larson, who runs My Brothers’ Farm in Creswell, Ore., south of Eugene with his brothers, Austin and Ben. Together, they produce organic hazelnuts, apples, pork and bison on about 320 acres along the Coast Fork Willamette River.
Some of the land is also managed as riparian forest for fish and wildlife habitat. That allows bigleaf maples — native to the Pacific Northwest — to thrive on the property.
While syrup production remains more of a hobby at My Brothers’ Farm, researchers at Oregon State University are studying what it would take to create a larger commercial industry akin to maple sugaring in the Northeastern U.S.
Eric T. Jones, an assistant professor of practice in the College of Forestry, is leading a federally funded project working with several landowners, including Larson, providing equipment and training to tap bigleaf maples commercially.
If successful, Jones predicts the industry could become as big as Oregon Christmas trees, valued at $106.9 million in 2020, according to the state Department of Agriculture.
“I think there’s huge potential, but we have a long ways to go,” Jones said. “We’re really just at the beginning.”
Funding comes from a three-year, $500,000 grant through the USDA Acer Access and Development Program to help promote the domestic maple syrup industry.
According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. production of maple syrup totaled nearly 4.24 million gallons in 2019. Almost half of that syrup came from Vermont, followed by New York and Maine. Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Connecticut also produced maple syrup.
Production has been slower to gain a foothold in the Northwest, though Jones said interest is growing.
“We have known for a long time you can tap bigleaf (maple trees),” he said. “We see these maples everywhere.”
Bigleaf maples are native along the Pacific Coast, ranging from the northern tip of Vancouver Island south to California. The species differs from the more common syrup-producing sugar maples on the East Coast, with less sugar concentration in the sap and a more earthy flavor.
It takes about 50-80 gallons of sap from bigleaf maples to make 1 gallon of syrup, which Jones acknowledged is a large number.
The project grant, in part, covers the cost of equipment such as tubing and vacuum pumps to make harvesting sap more efficient. Jones also purchased a $5,000 reverse osmosis unit capable of removing water from the sap to make syrup faster than boiling.
The equipment is being installed at places like My Brothers’ Farm to experiment with commercial-scale production, and develop best management practices to establish the industry.
Larson said he has 250 trees on his property tapped this year. Maple syrup pairs nicely with the farm’s other crops, he said, and offers the chance to add value.
“The jury is still out as to whether this will be an economically viable enterprise for us,” Larson said. “We’re not betting the farm on it, but we’re excited about the potential.”
Eliza Nelson, founder and director of the nonprofit Oregon Maple Project, describes the taste of bigleaf maple syrup as richer and more complex than its sugar maple cousin.
Words that come to people’s minds, she said, include “buttery” and “mossy,” with hints of caramel and sweet potato.
“It is really the taste of the Northwest,” Nelson said. “It is so much fun to give people samples.”
Having grown up in New England, Nelson was already familiar with the art and science of tapping maple trees when she came to Oregon in 1996. It was part of her curriculum teaching fifth- and sixth-graders at the Arbor School in Tualatin, south of Portland.
Nelson established the Oregon Maple Project in 2020, leasing land for small-batch syrup production at Camp Colton, an 85-acre forested property in rural Clackamas County.
While the pandemic has limited some gatherings and school field trips, Nelson said families and homeschool and outdoors groups have come to learn about bigleaf maples and take home some syrup for themselves.
Last winter, Nelson said they collected 50 gallons of sap, enough to make 1 gallon of syrup.
For most people in Oregon, Nelson said making bigleaf maple syrup is still a hobby. However, she is bullish on the industry’s potential for growth.
“Demand for the syrup is going to be insatiable,” she said. “There’s a long, long future ahead of not having enough producers to meet demand.”
Jones said the industry still faces several challenges to getting started. The Northwest’s climate and microclimates can be more unpredictable, with rapidly fluctuating winter temperatures that can halt sap production.
Terrain is another hurdle, as bigleaf maples may grow on vertical slopes or other densely wooded areas that present access problems.
Finally, commercial equipment is currently not made locally, and must be ordered from manufacturers across the country. It will take a critical mass of commercial-scale producers before that infrastructure falls into place, Jones said.
Jones said he hopes his research will mitigate the risks and give the state’s 100 or so hobbyists the confidence to expand.
“We just want to be there to support people and get them on the right path,” he said.
For more information about bigleaf maple syrup research, including a list of frequently asked questions, visit www.oregontreetappers.net.
Age: 56
Hometown: Eugene, Ore.
Family: Wife, Katie Lynch, and one daughter
Occupation: Assistant professor of practice, Oregon State University College of Forestry
Education: Doctorate in ecological anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2001
