Hiram – If you’ve lived in the area for any amount of time, you’re sure to be familiar with the Monroe’s Orchard on Pioneer Trail in Hiram. Now in its 81st year of operation, they’re still a family run operation, still in the business of farming, and still focused on bringing families together outside for home-grown food and fun with pick-your-own fruits, fall festivals, and tours. And while the Monroe family is well known for their luscious strawberries, cherries, peaches, and apples and cider during prime fruit seasons at Monroe’s Orchard on Pioneer Trail, not everyone knows that the Monroe family also produces maple syrup each spring.
In fact, Sue and Roger Monroe are the third generation to operate the orchard, and the fourth generation to produce maple syrup. Today, they work together on the farm with their three children, Nathan, Angela and Allison. “We truly enjoy the fact that all of our children have come back to the farm, making us a fifth generation farm,” beamed proud mom, Sue. On a cool, cloudy day in early March, the Monroe clan gathered together around the evaporator in their sugarhouse to produce another season of syrup.
When outdoor temperatures rise, sap begins running, collecting in tubes and running to large collection tanks. From there, sap travels through reverse osmosis equipment to remove roughly 75% of the water, sending sap concentrate to the evaporator. Roger joked that the RO machine saved his marriage, since it reduces the time he once spent during maple season. Still, the magic of turning tree sap into syrup is a labor-intensive process.
The result is a concentrate that is pumped to the evaporator, and boiled, over several hours until it reaches roughly 219 degrees and maintains the anticipated consistency of syrup. Processing roughly 600 gallons per hour, it takes between 35 to 45 gallons of sap to produce just one gallon of syrup, according to the Ohio Maple Producers Association. The process is very time-intensive, but if the popularity of the area’s thriving pancake breakfasts are any indication, the results are well worth the time and effort.
“We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t love it,” Roger noted. Nathan agreed, sharing that the season takes place during the time of the year where rain, snow, and freezing temperatures provide lots of opportunities to slip and fall in the ever-present mud. But maple season also offers time spent together, sharing bittersweet memories of previous seasons spent with family no longer with them. Or fond childhood memories of Angela and Allison’s childhood tea parties while seated on sap buckets, held in the very same sugarhouse. Or traditions like the family sharing supper down at the sugarhouse, and enjoying biscuits and ice cream topped with fresh, warm syrup.
“People make maple syrup because it’s in their blood,” Sue added. The tradition is likely to continue, since Angela is due to deliver a child, the start of the farm’s sixth generation of syrup producers, this June, “just in time for strawberry season,” she joked.
If you’re interested in purchasing maple syrup, please call (330) 569-7464, send a message via Facebook or Instagram, or simply stop by the house. Monroe’s Orchard offers around 25 varieties of apples and six varieties of peaches each season, weather permitting. They also grow pears, strawberries, cherries, raspberries and a variety of fall crops. For more information, visit www.monroesorchard.com.
