Maple Syrup Season In Michigan: An Interview with Whitney Farmstead

As the weather warms, people regain energy laid dormant during the sleepy winter. Certain birdsong, the sound of peeper frogs, and the occasional sunny, 50° day indicate that spring is on the way. One indicator of spring’s coming is the flow of sap from our local maple trees. Alex Blume and I, Bella Martinez, of Argus Farm Stop recently spoke with Malaika Whitney and Matthew Haarklou of Whitney Farmstead, about the process of maple production during this special month. Sitting in their sugar shack, we discussed the farm’s history, the local community, and tradition on the farm.

The Whitney Farm, located in Dexter, has been with the Whitney family since 1900, when Malaika’s great-great grandfather, Estley purchased 40 acres. “He had a lung issue, so he bought land to get out of the city. They were small and diversified [then].” The farm grew and shrank over the decades, but maple sugaring has been a part since the beginning.

a sugar maple with two collection buckets

The current iteration of the Whitney Farm, known as the Whitney Farmstead, began in 2014, after Malaika returned from Sterling College in Vermont. Matthew and Malaika met there and Matthew came with her to start the farm. “Spring of 2015 was the first year we sold syrup and applied to go to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market and the first year we started selling at Argus Farm Stop.” Matthew told us.

The oldest sugar maples the Whitneys tap predate their initial purchase in 1900. The oldest are probably 200 years old, Matthew estimates. A sugar maple tree needs to reach about a foot in diameter before it can be safely tapped, which will take about 30-40 years.

A hole is drilled into the maple tree and a spile is hammered in. The sap drips out of the spile and into a collection bucket. Bigger maple operations than Whitney Farmstead will use a system of hoses to direct the sap directly to a collection tank. However, there are drawbacks. “The tube operations spend a ton of time fixing tubes where wildlife run through. Because they’re there year-round, there’s much more maintenance.”

A smaller operation involves daily collection while the weather permits. “We tap the trees as soon as the days get above freezing, below freezing at night. Once tapped, we wait for them to fill up, then collect.”

The Whitneys boil the sap with a wood-fired stove, creating an arguably more complex and delicious syrup. “In large operations, using reverse osmosis makes things very efficient. It cuts the boiling time down. We think [boiling fully with wood fire] makes the maple taste better. It boils longer and has more time to develop flavors.”

Typically, it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of maple syrup. The Whitneys will take the collected sap in their tank on their truck to a large holding tank outside their sugar shack. They’ll pump the sap into their first boiler as room permits. Once it reaches 80% syrup in the first boiler, they’ll move it to a finish pan with a filter, and then can it.

Syrup needs to reach 66% sugar on the BRIX scale cold to be considered maple syrup. The sugar content of the sap will decrease as the season progresses. It starts around 5% sugar, but it will decrease down to about 2% sugar at the end of the season, needing more boiling time to reach maple syrup.

whitney farmstead’s wood fired boiler in the sugar shack

With sap season directly related to the weather, rising temperatures impact farmers’ harvests and make the season more difficult to predict. Temperatures warming too quickly will cause the sap to gum up and change flavor, shortening the already short, annual maple season.

“Sometimes you’ll get fluke warm spells in January and it’s not worthwhile to tap then, because it might just be one day where you could get a run. There is a timeline from when you tap to when your spiles dry up and heal themselves. So, if you tap too early you’ll miss the later runs, and if you tap too late you’ll miss the early runs. You just have to find that sweet spot. Before mid February, we’re hesitant to tap. Maybe at some point that will change.

“[Rising temperatures] makes the decision more difficult. This year, we couldn’t have tapped any earlier because it would’ve been too cold, but if it continues to be this warm, the season is going to be over quickly. We need that fluctuation [of temperature]. It can’t get too hot, or it all gets cut off by bacteria that causes the sap to gum up, making the holes close up quicker. We don’t want crazy highs. The other day it was 35°, and the sap was still running.”

Considering how much sap it takes to make syrup, it’s clear how much thought and care go into the process.“100 gallons is our average. 2022 was slightly above average, 2023 was a record year, last year was below, this year we’ve got a long way to go.”

Malaika has said what they’re trying to do is “preserve traditions.” Sap season brings a special feeling and sharing that feeling with the community is a tradition they preserve.

“This is something our family’s always done. It’s the perfect balance between doing work outside and sitting in front of a cozy fire, and I think it’s just been an  important cultural indicator that spring is coming; time to tap the trees. Because the yield is so variable in the season, it’s important for us to do community events around this time. It’s as much about sharing the magic of the season as it is actually producing syrup.”

Whitney Farmstead meets their customers and community through three main sales channels; the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, Argus Farm Stop, and their own farm stand. Matthew told us about the process of building those networks.

 “It’s taken this many years to get experience, figure out markets, grow our business, and advertise. The key to our success has been our intense focus on direct marketing, building our brand, and getting a direct reputation through the Ann Arbor Farmers Market. Year-to-year, we try to have consistency in having good products, even though maybe not having enough at times. We can basically sell anything we produce now.

“I think that’s pretty rare in today's food system, for customers to meet the farmer and producers of food. We make a lot of public opportunities, not only through the farm stand, but through events, to come out to the farm. University of Michigan classes have come out. All of the Argus Farm Stop employees have come out at various times, when we first started.”

While the farmers market is a fantastic community space for farmers to sell their products, an on-stand farm stand provides a greater amount of context to the products. “[Customers] will see our sign and see our freezer, but there’s not much context, unless they’re willing to hear me ramble for 5-10 minutes about what we do. But if somebody’s out here, it paints a much clearer picture of what we do and provides clearer context.”

Malaika compared educational sales channels to grocery stores. “In the food system, we’ll never be able to compete with the marketing, convenience, or price point of any major grocery store, but we can offer something grocery stores can’t. It’s awesome to be able to sell directly or at places where it’s just as easy for people to say ‘Oh wow, this place is 10 minutes from here.’ It goes beyond any buzzword. We accept that we’ll never compete with Plum Market or Whole Foods. And we’re not trying to.”

With their farm stand and community events, Whitney Farmstead is a very communal place. They discussed keeping focus while engaging the community.

“In syrup season we have pancake pop-ups. We’d like to do more. It’s our home, so it’s always a fine line. It can feel overwhelming to host big events, but it’s important.”

“Because agritourism is such a ‘hot thing,’ it becomes important for us to put on events with the understanding that this isn’t all we do. This is a tiny piece of what we do, and it makes sense with the season, but we’re not set up to be a tourism farm or a petting zoo. We have to find that line between us first and foremost being farmers producing food and finding enough opportunities to share that in a way that feels good.

As Matthew notes, diversification is key to their success. “Maple syrup is just a part of what we do. It’s not our identity as a producer. Our emphasis is on small scale diversity. It’s what makes what we do viable and sustains us year round. If we have a bad syrup year, it’s a shorter winter, so more grass grows. Last year was one of our worst maple seasons, but one of our best hay seasons. It all evens out; we don’t put all of our eggs in one basket.

Part of what makes Whitney Farmstead so special is the incredible timber frame buildings they have on their farm. Matthew sourced timber completely from the farm and neighbors’ lands, milled them, and raised three buildings on the farm.

“Farmers have access to timber and wood, and part of being a small farm is the ability to diversify and be resilient—to build your own things. You gotta be crafty. Why buy lumber?”

The Sugar Shack was the first building they raised. It gives their wood-fired boiler a roof for the weather (and Alex and I a cozy place to sit for the interview). “My family’s been making maple syrup for a long time. We just never did it in a sugar house or sold the syrup. This would be in a barn, then we’d move it outside. Things were blowing over. One time a board blew over, hit the spout, and drained the whole pan overnight. It took Matthew one year of doing that before he was like, ‘Yeah, we gotta figure this out.’”

“It could be raining or snowing. You’re keeping the fire going, getting wet. I was looking for something to build and this seemed very natural.”

Sourcing the trees sustainably is a process for Whitney Farmstead. Matthew has an eye towards maintaining good and healthy trees on the farm, while using what can be used.

“When you walk through your woods, you see, here’s a tree that came down in a storm, here’s a tree that got struck by lightning. It’s still standing, but if not dead, dying. You cut it down and realize there were carpenter ants eating out the pith of the tree. If you had not cut it down, it would’ve had the value of firewood, if not nothing. It’s a necessity in managing a forest to go through it, letting the best trees be as healthy as they can and cutting others down.”

Whitney Farmstead’s main focus is on regenerative ranching of livestock. They use rotational grazing, moving the farm animals around different areas of the farm for grazing.

“We have 100% grass fed beef and lamb. Those are both heritage breeds. We do what’s called adaptive grazing—rotational grazing. We move them daily all over the farm, mimicking  ruminant herds that have resided on grasslands all over the world.  They are our bulk of managing 120 acres of grasslands, also making hay for those herds and flocks. The pigs and chickens are also pastured, but on a much smaller scale. Just enough to provide a diversity to what we offer, but we generally just raise chickens in the summer and a smaller number of pigs.”

There are many benefits to rotational grazing, especially on how it impacts the land.

“We’re managing our pastures as perennial polycultures. There’s diversity of plant, animal, insect, and microbiological life that thrives in rotational grazing. As they’re eating, and leaving, the land gets a full recovery. Pastures often have tree and shrub species, native grasses, wildflowers. They’re not a monocrop. We’re continuing the idea that you can raise nutrient-dense protein and support diverse, thriving ecosystems in a way that’s not possible with a crop or vegetable system. We’re giving back through inputs but we’re not buying in massive quantities of input to offset what we’re taking. It feels like a natural system; working with the land.”

the whitney fmaily in front of the sugar shack

The different livestock can serve different purposes, and the Whitney Farmstead uses their grazing to accomplish tasks the land needs.

“The sheep can go places where the cows can’t. The sheep are lighter, more portable, and eat different things than the cows do. Between all of those species, the cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, we utilize them where it makes sense on different parts of the farm. We use pigs as tillage in areas that are overgrown with invasive plants or poison ivy. Chickens are amazing at places that need a lot of nutrients quickly because they’re on a small area. It feels like a big orchestra. Everyone does their part. They’re always dancing around each other.”

Malaika and Matthew now have three kids in addition to their herds and maple trees.

“We’re finding the balance of farming well, while also being a family and being intentional about time spent. The farm isn’t everything. It’s what we do to sustain ourselves.”

“Having [building the house] off of our plate feels like a new leaf. We have energy to give to the farm that we haven’t been able to for the last few years. But, we’re not trying to grow a bigger customer base. We’re trying to take care of the customers we have.”

When asked “How do you think the farm has changed over the past ten years?” Malaika comedically responded “We’re much less productive” to laughs all around.

Whether you’re well acquainted with Whitney Farmstead or a stranger, Matthew and Malaika go out of their way to make you feel welcome. During our short time there, Alex and I had the chance to interact with Matthew and Malaika’s three children and their lab, Sebastian. Walking around the farm and observing their maple process, it’s easy to appreciate the effort and care they put into everything they produce. Their practices are organic, utilizing natural systems (like rotational grazing), and they carefully consider their farming methods to harmonize with the land while producing high quality food for their customers. Take the time to stop by their farm stand on Wednesdays or attend one of their community events. It is well worth the visit!

Written by Bella Martinez