Joel Berkheimer

Joel Berkheimer
J & M Elk Ranch

on making maple syrup....


“When I got this stove, it had already been used for three generations of making syrup!” interjected Joel Berkheimer of Roulette, PA. Berkheimer has been making maple syrup for several years, and has had been bustling around his sugar shack for the past couple weeks, as temperatures have started to rise. A true mountain-man, he lives with his wife and daughters in a beautiful log cabin that he built himself. His property spans several acres along the Potter Game Club Road outside of Roulette.

Berkheimer has tapped more trees than ever this year, and hopes to make and sell some of the sweet syrup this year. In the past, Berkheimer made just enough syrup to give as gifts to his friends and family, but this year might yield enough to make a little profit from his labor of love. “Syrup making is like hunting. It gets in your blood, and you just can’t wait ‘till spring comes so you can make syrup!”

The syrup making process starts in the woods, where Joel has over 300 maple trees tapped. After a small hole is drilled into the tree, and a metal spout inserted, then the sap is collected either through plastic lines to a large holding tank, or in individual buckets.

If the weather permits, and the temperatures rise just right during the day, then the sap starts to flow from beneath the bark of the maple tree. Berkheimer then collects the sap and transfers it to rectangular pans situated atop an antique wood-burning stove. 30-40 gallons of sap are needed to make just one gallon of maple syrup. The fire is fueled by hardwood scraps from a local lumber mill. For several hours, the sap steams as it is boiled over the high temperature, sifting impurities out with a screen. When the sap becomes near to the consistency of syrup, it is boiled more over the kitchen stove to purify the syrup even more. Milk is then added to the boiled-down tree sap, and it draws the impurities to the surface. The milk is then skimmed off the surface, and more milk is added, and the process repeated. When the milk that rises to the surface is pure white, the syrup is ready to be bottled. After an entire day’s work, Berkheimer bottles only a few gallons of syrup.

Berkheimer also owns and operates J & M Elk ranch. He and his family raise elk for meat processing, and also offer trophy elk hunts on his property. One elk yields around 300-500 pounds of meat. The bull elk shed their antlers each year, and Berkheimer says that they grow back quickly, at a rate of nearly an inch each day. He says that he hopes to build a small cabin in the woods, with the hopes of drawing in elk-hunters who need lodging. Berkheimer welcomes folks to stop by and see the elk during the day, but he prefers that curious visitors do not drive by with spotlights at night, as it disturbs the animals.