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Tapping into Michigan’s maple market

ALLEN, Mich. — If the Poindexters had to describe their Sugar Bush Farms products in a single word or phrase, they would probably choose “quality and diversification.”

Quality, because Rick Poindexter says that’s what the family emphasizes when they make maple syrup and other products for sale at their store, and diversification, because the operation is about a number of things, not just syrup.

Rick is into things organic, which he associates with higher quality. Along with their maple syrup operation, his family raises pigs, sheep and chickens for egg laying. Rick said they don’t put chemicals into their feed. They also have a vegetable garden where they grow beets, tomatoes, peppers, winter squash, green beans and onions.

The things they raise and produce all end up at their store up the road, which faces U.S. Highway 12. Rick admitted sometimes the location of the store along the highway is a problem, since people will drive so fast they don’t see the sign.

“It’s doing okay. You always want it to do more,” he said of the retail business, which is open March 31-December 30.

Besides maple syrup, their homemade products include strawberry jam, peach jam, beets, tomato products, corn relish and apple butter. The Poindexters also have a greenhouse, and carry a full nursery line.

“We raise most of our own plants,” Rick said. “We’re going to have a lot of plants, I can tell you that.”

For Rick, the romance and allure of making maple syrup wears off after about the first week of work. That includes tapping, collecting sap, transporting it and processing it into syrup.

“It’s not going to make you a rich man,” he said. “For the first week I love it. Sometimes we’re out here 24 hours a day. You just don’t stop.”

During tapping season, all available farm labor is needed. Most of the family works at the farm, along with two other workers, Tom and Tracy. The Poindexter nuclear family consists of Rick, 54, Jan, 50, and their four children, who range in age from 13-26.

The season for tapping for maple syrup varies somewhat from year to year, depending on the weather. It usually happens no earlier than mid-February. The temperature has to be below freezing at night but above freezing during the day. Under these conditions, tree sap will run up the tree during the day and down the tree at night.

“We seem to be tapping a little later every year,” Rick said. “When it gets warm, we’re done tapping. Once it starts to get warm, the sap becomes cloudy and dark. Good sap is always clear.”

It take the husband and wife team, plus their children and two additional workers, two weeks to tap, collect and process the sap into syrup. The operation includes 500 taps, which have to be redone each year. These will ultimately yield about 250 gallons of maple syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.

Basically, maple syrup is derived from sap by boiling it down in an evaporator machine. The evaporator operates on the principle that the boiling point of water is lower than it is for syrup. Several floats regulate the height of the sap in the evaporator tank.

A hydrometer is attached to the evaporator, which measures the thickness, or density, of the sap. Once the product reaches a certain density, it’s ready to be called maple syrup. Sugar sand and other impurities have to be filtered out of the product as well. That task is done with a filter press, which pumps the syrup through a fine filter.

“It’s important to me and my wife to keep the operation clean,” Rick said.

A little bit of everything

Another part of the Poindexters’ operation is its Limousin cattle. About 80 head of graze on their pasture.

According to an article from Oklahoma State University, Limousin cattle originated in the Limousin and Marche areas of France. The breed was known for its hardiness. Although the terrain was rather rocky and hard, Limousin cattle thrived and bred year-round. They were used as work animals and, later, were fattened for slaughter.
This breed was first brought into North America by way of Canada. By the 1960s, it had been brought into the United States. For Rick, this breed is high quality because it has less fat and is easier to work with than other types. He says it has 20 percent less marbled fat than other breeds.

“Limousin cattle are a fairly new breed,” Rick said. “Our stock is a pretty good stock.”

The Poindexters have their Limousin beef processed at a USDA-certified facility, and this product is sold at the store.

“The beef is a very important part of the business,” Jan said, which they sell directly to customers in boxed packages.

The store itself is important. Located at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Hog Creek Road, the retail business is pivotal to the operation.

“I would say our income is a combination of the store and direct sales from the farm,” Jan stated. “We’re all connected. We know what our beef is and how we raise it. Our sandwiches and beef are getting to be well known.”

They sell beef in frozen sandwiches, as well as hamburgers at the store. They also have a restaurant during the spring, summer and fall with seating outside. The restaurant features homemade custard, hot dogs, Italian and Polish sausages and French fries. The pork products “are made from our pigs,” Jan emphasized.

Years of experience

Though Rick and Jan are originally from Michigan, they spent 18 years running a retail market in Florida, selling oranges, grapefruit and many other products. They also lived in Texas for three years, operating a thoroughbred ranch. They’ve been married since 1980.
They have been on the farm for 16 years, although it’s been in the family for the past 30, owned by Jan’s mother and father. She describes her father as semi-retired.

Melissa, the Poindexters’ eldest daughter, works at the store with her mother. “Melissa and I are more focused on the store,” Jan said. “Melissa makes the candy, I make the fudge.”

Jan makes “thousands of pounds” of fudge every season, every third day while the store remains open. Melissa makes turtles, crafted of pecans, caramel and chocolate. She also makes Sugar Bush Meltaways, made of white chocolate, peanut butter, marshmallow and other ingredients.

Although the Poindexters make many of the products they sell, they also carry high quality products made elsewhere. For example, Rick says people rave about the pickles they stock, made by Sechler’s Fine Pickles out of St. Joe, Ind. He heard about them when he was a merchant in Florida, and has stuck with the brand.
Like the Sechler’s brand, the Poindexters think of their “brand” as a small, high quality operation that’s outside the mainstream of agribusiness.

“We’re not into all the preservatives and stuff,” Rick said at one point.

Jan said when people get to know what they have, they like it. “We make it a point to talk to everybody,” she said. “We get very good comments; we’re building up a nice clientele.”

4/16/2008