Korthase Brothers
by Becky Thomas

Bruce and Randy Korthase
4676 Fontenoy
Boyne City, MI 49712
(231) 582-7421

On approximately 40 acres, the Korthase Brothers have 2500 taps and a 5 x 15 pan over wood-burning fire. Yet they aren’t the first in their family to “tap” the potential of the maple grove. “Great Uncle Henry had made syrup years before,” Bruce Korthase said, “The land has been in the family since the early 1900s.” With his brother Randy, Bruce has followed Great Uncle Henry’s tradition and taken syrup-making into the next century.

Bruce and Randy began their small operation in 1982; and, like many sugarbushes, it grew from there. In 1986, a new building was constructed around a new evaporator; and, just recently, another building has been added.

“The last two years have been very disappointing,” Bruce reports. They only produced 300 gallons of syrup this past spring. “We’ve had a lot of squirrel damage to the tubing.” The first four years of syrup making were dependent on buckets and all the hauling that comes with it. So, despite the problems with squirrels, tubing has been a great asset over the past 18 years the Korthase brothers have used it. “We use tubing, vacuum pumps, and no carting anymore,” Bruce said.

The brothers sell the product mostly out of the home and through word of mouth, although they also have some wholesale business. From the syrup, they make some cream and sugar on a small scale. Their impact on the community can be felt through the school tours they host for the local 1st and 2nd graders. Although this is a young age, Bruce feels that the children have a meaningful experience. “The teachers set up stations throughout the woods,” Bruce described. At each station, they interact with nature, by counting the rings on a cut tree, identifying types of trees or by putting a spile into a tapped hole.

When asked about other producers in the area, Bruce commented, “not as many as you would think with all the woodland here.” He added that there are four or five within a 10-12 mile radius of his operation.