Winter Institute 2022

Videos

Leveraging social media to Grow Your Small Business

April will present on the different way of using social media to help grow your small business. She will explain how a cell phone can be used to take great pictures of your products.

Carefully guarded secrets of boiling sap

Glenn will be sharing his many years of experience of boiling sap and his tricks of the trade.

Beginner Maple Wine and Maple Beer

Rod will have some general information about wine making and making maple wine, as well as using maple syrup in brewing. Rod will share some of the tricks of the trade.

Marketing Maple Syrup

A person will learn about the many different avenues of marketing your maple syrup.

Maple 101 and the cost of setting up a Sugarbush

Join in along with other beginning maple producers to learn how you can develop an outdoor hobby that the whole family can enjoy. In this workshop you will learn about the process of tapping maple trees as well as the equipment and techniques you will need to produce your own maple syrup from the sap you collect. The workshop will also talk about the average cost of setting up a sugarbush.

Chainsaw and Forestry Safety, Scott Grim, Midwest Stihl

Scott Grim has been in the small engine and handheld power equipment business for 30+ years. He was a Lawn and Garden service manager for 14 years at a large John Deere Dealership. Scott serviced and sold STIHL handheld power equipment and has been STIHL Gold Certified since 2012. He is currently a Technical Sales Specialist with Midwest STIHL starting in May of 2018. Scott works closely with end-users doing demos and various training. He also does technical training with the dealers in our territory.

April Lee Wiencek is a Chicago native who is a Chef, Recipe Blogger, Newspaper Columnist & Social Media Influencer. Her favorite things are creating unique, affordable recipes, replicating heirloom recipes & enjoying a cocktail or two while doing so. On her platforms you will find her creating recipes, grocery shopping, giving home tips and cooking dinner every night. She lives in Rogers Park, Chicago, with her partner Mr. Tipsy, and her rescue pets.

Mark Dunning, Director of Business Development at BConnected, LLC

Few things light up Mark more than supporting the success and growth of those around him, including utilizing social media as a tool to maximize business impact. As the Director of Business Development at BConnected, he gets to brainstorm with a wide stripe of businesses and nonprofits to utilize social media strategy and original content to reach their goals.

When he’s not meeting with clients, you can often find Mark at networking meetings across Northeast Wisconsin and especially in his hometown of Green Bay. He serves on various nonprofit boards and roles with NeighborWorks Green Bay, National Railroad Museum, HBBA, Greater Green Bay Chamber, and the American Cancer Society. Mark received his bachelor’s degree at a Bible college and spent 13 years in church and nonprofit leadership roles, followed by a couple of years working with a local coffee roaster. A great weekend for him involves fresh coffee, relaxed and intentional time with his wife and two elementary-aged kids, and connecting with friends over a meal and a drink.

Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/markdaviddunning

BConnected’s Website: www.bconnectedllc.com

Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/bconnected-llc

NASS 2021 Maple Stats

Greg Bussler NASS

Learn about the 2021 USDA WI Maple Syrup Survey Results. Greg will present the data collected from the WI maple producers that voluntarily participated in the 2021 USDA Maple Survey.

Greg Bussler, NASS greg.bussler@usda.gov (608)287-4775

Glenn Goodrich

Goodrich Maple Farm, started with 25 trees in the back yard, boiling on a 2’x2’ pan over a wood fire. Now they tap over 125,000 trees with one of the most technologically advanced systems in the US. Goodrich Maple designs sugaring equipment for several major maple equipment manufacturing companies. Glenn continues to teach seminars in Vermont and other states to help other sugar makers learn about increasing their production & quality. Goodrich, especially enjoys mentoring young sugar makers & instilling a love for the craft in them

Stefan Boerboom, WI DATCP.

State licensing and inspection is an important part of our maple industry. Through licensing and inspection, we can provide a standard of quality and consumer confidence that is critical to marking your maple syrup. In order to make inspections meaningful, our association needs to work closely with the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection to develop inspection guidelines that make sense for our industry. In this session, you will learn about the licensing and inspection process as well as what the inspectors are trained to look for. And the current updates to the WDATCP webpage.

https://datcp.wi.gov/Pages/Homepage.aspx

Stefan.Boerboom@Wisconsin.gov (608)575-7316

Jim Adamski, CDL/Roth Sugar Bush

Jim Adamski is a fourth-generation sugar maker and has been a maple syrup producer for the last 33 years. The family Sugar bush started in the backyard with 25 taps near the city of Antigo in north central Wisconsin. The sugar bush that started with 25 taps has grown to over 10,000 taps. Jim has been on the forefront of new technology in the maple world and has employed vacuum tubing and reverse osmosis equipment in the family sugar bush for more than 20 years. In 2013 Jim was hired by CDL Wisconsin/Roth Sugar Bush as a sales consultant for the Midwest. Jim is a past President of the Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producers Association and is the current delegate for Wisconsin for the North American Maple Syrup Council where he serves as a member of the strategic planning committee.

Joe Polak, Maple Hollow

Joe Polak is a third-generation maple syrup producer in Merrill, WI. He is the owner of Maple Hollow Syrup and Equipment in Merrill , WI. He also is Secretary/Treasurer of the North American Maple Syrup Council. He was recently inducted in the Maple Hall of Fame.

www.maplehollowsyrup.com

(715)536-7251

W1887 Robinson Drive, Merrill, WI 54452

Info.maplehollow@frontier.com

Ski’s Sugarbush

Jon Podgorski is a second-generation sugar maker who has a battle scar on his left hand from making maple syrup as a little boy with his father and two older brothers. After a lengthy break from sugaring in the winter of 2013 Jon and older brother Matt decided to start renovating an old milk house to start making maple syrup again. Spring of 2014 Ski’s Sugar Shack was started with 1,100 taps and let’s just say the rest is history. Today with the help of his wife Katie there 4 children and other family they make around 1,400 gallons of maple syrup a year and sell a wide variety of value-added products including bourbon barrel aged maple syrup.

skisugarshack@gmail.com

(715)921-0010

Rod Swerman, Swerman Bros.

Rod is a retired meteorologist (30 years with the NWS). He presently works part time at a winery, in both the tasting room and wine production areas. Rod and his brother have been a hobby maple syrup producers since 2000, with roughly 250 taps. Rod has been a winemaker since he was a teen-ager, and a home brewer since 1991. In the last few years he also has become a hard cider maker, and started aging maple syrup in used spirit barrels.