Phil and Sarah (Widstrand) Gudgeon, owners of Kickapoo Gold, have a family history of making maple syrup. Our ancestors have been in the Kickapoo Valley since the late 1800’s. The Gudgeons’ and the Lawrences’ were early settlers in this area. The Widstrands’ and Mullers’ also lived in the area. The Mullers’ were early La Farge area settlers and the Widstrands’ came to the area in the 1940’s as newspaper owners and publishers. The Mullers made syrup in the Bear creek area southeast of La Farge in the 1800’s. The Lawrences made maple syrup on their farm north and east of La Farge on Maple Ridge in the 1920’s. Phil’s grandfather’s brother, Leslie Lawrence, age 93, visited our sugarhouse in the spring of 2002. He could remember his dad making syrup. He said, “We were tapping trees and making quite a bit of syrup in the 1920’s.” When asked if they ever sold any, he answered, “We wouldn’t sell anything that was that good.” Phil’s grandfather, Chester Gudgeon, bought the farm where Phil grew up and is now owned by his brother Fritz. Grandpa Gudgeon started tapping trees there in the 1920’s. Phil’s father, Fred, rented the farm in 1949 and later purchased it from his dad in 1959. Fred and Alene (Lawrence) Gudgeon continued making maple syrup. They tapped trees in the valley north and east of the farmstead. They tell a very colorful story about the time they had gathered all of the sap and had it loaded on a wagon in ten-gallon milk cans when the team ran away on them. The horses did not stop until they had spilled all the sap and then they were driven until they did not have the energy to have such mischievous behavior. This was one of the last times that sugar bush was tapped and horses used to produce syrup on the Gudgeon farm.
Phil’s memories of making syrup start in the 1950’s. The family only produced syrup for their own needs and some to give away. In Phil’s own words, “We had about fifty galvanized pails and about fifty six quart oil cans of all brands. Pure Oil, Mobil, Standard, Shure-Lube, Sinclair and others--even some gallon Crisco cans and a large two-gallon Red Dot Potato Chip can. In our creativeness, a large fish bowl was placed on a rock between two trees to collect the sap.
We had a few galvanized spiles but over half of what we used were hand made from sumac trees. My grandparents Carson and Gyneth Lawrence always helped my parents make syrup as we were dairy farmers and the help was needed to get it boiled and canned. When we were boiling sap I did help grandfather burn the soft center out of the sumac with a hot wire we would place in the fire. This would make the hole for the sap to run in. The best part of making syrup was cooking hotdogs and other things over the fire for supper. We always ate before the evening milking and grandma and grandpa Lawrence would always be there for the cookout. Grandpa ran a Sinclair Service Station in La Farge and would close it early and come to the farm to boil sap. He always brought bottled soda and was an expert at roasting marshmallows. This was great fun for my brother and I and we could not wait to get home from school to see how the trees ran and if we were going to have a cookout.
We cooked the sap in an open pan about 3’x8’x8” over a hole dug into the side of an old road bank on the edge of our lawn. We installed a long stovepipe at the end of the hole and sloped the dirt to keep the heat close to the pan. Dad would keep old wooden fence posts and boards and other dry wood to have a hot fire. We controlled the draft with a piece of tin over the open end of the firebox. The pan would hold about 80 gallons of sap and we would boil and add sap until we had added about 250 gallons of sap. We would boil this until we had a small volume of syrup. You watched and waited until the syrup was ready. Knowing when it was ready was an art all of its own. It was a balancing act between burning it up and taking it off before it was finished. Taking it off too early made canning a slow process and overdoing it was unthinkable. When we decided it was done you pull the fire out from under the pan with a garden rake as fast as possible. This was a challenging job and things like gloves, hands, face, boots, and hair could be singed. As soon as the fire had been pulled, the race was on to dip it out of the pan and filter it into a milk can. You want it hot to filter or it becomes a slow waiting process. The milk can with six to seven gallons of rough finished syrup was taken to the house to clear and can. We had an electric stove in the basement. My mom did the canning in the kitchen only one time. She had to wash the walls and all of the cupboards because they became sticky from the steam. The syrup was cooled and eggs and milk were added to the syrup. This was boiled and skimmed off which cleared the impurities from the syrup. It was cooked until it reached 218 degrees and filtered with a piece of milk filters cut to fit a canning funnel. The filter was a slow process. The canning process could take an entire day if the syrup was not cooked far enough on the fire. The person cooking the syrup could be a hero or something else in the eyes of the people canning. We used this method, with several modifications to filtering and canning until I purchased a used evaporator, which was put in operation in 2002.
Sarah and I and my grandparents (Carson and Gyneth) tapped my parent’s sugar bush in 1974. This was our first year and it was a stellar year with 14 batches and 54 gallons of syrup. We waited six years to make syrup again. This time it was on our own property near Viroqua. Here we have made syrup from about 150 taps until the purchase of the evaporator. I went to an auction to bid on some shop tools and came home with a 4’ X 14’ because it was so cheap. This cheap evaporator caused a building to be built and trees leased to have the volume of sap needed to operate it. You produce all of this syrup then you need to sell it. I have had my fill of buying retail and selling wholesale, the grave ill of production agriculture, so embarked on marketing our syrup as Kickapoo Gold. I feel that is about the only gold you will find in the beautiful Kickapoo area.
To expand into a Maple syrup business we have had a lot of help from family and friends. There are too many to name but three of them have been extremely active in the project. My brother Fritz, my cousin Dave Lawrence and my brother-in-law Chris Widstrand have been crucial to our progress.
In September of 2002, Kickapoo Gold Maple Supplies became a dealer for Leader Evaporator Co. Inc. We see an opportunity to service our local producers and we have a growing interest here in expanding maple syrup production. One local group, the Mississippi Maple Cooperative, has received a grant to promote maple syrup production. I rent warehouse space in Westby WI to house the office and inventory. You can visit Kickapoo Gold Maple Supplies at 200 High Echo Lane Westby WI, 54667.
