Greetings from your President

Once again the January meeting has come and gone. We had a great turnout with 203 people participating. There was definitely something for everyone in this years’ program, including several equipment suppliers who were present with all their wares.

Mr. & Mrs. Dick Schorr, from Ohio, came and talked about 2007 NAMSC and IMSI meeting which will be hosted jointly by Ohio and Indiana maple producers in October 2007. Anyone interested in attending can go to their web site: www.ohiomapleproducers.com; information will be posted as it becomes available.

Our guest speaker this year was Bradley Gillilan from Leader Evaporator Company of Vermont. Bradley has many years experience both in production of maple syrup and manufacturing maple syrup equipment.

He spoke about the proper way to fire an evaporator and the differences between using wood, oil and propane. The fuel used determines the depth of sap in pans. Continuing on in his presentation, he gave some helpful hints on dealing with foam build up in the different units and how to control it. Brad also covered the use of a pre- heater or steam away with various do's and don’ts. My hat is off to Brad for the excellent job he did in his presentation.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the change of the lunch menu this year.

Our fall tour will be in the south west part of Michigan this September; be looking for the information posted on our web site and in our Fall newsletter.

I hope you all have a great season. May the sap run long and hard for you.

Ron Thomas