Sugary sap flows upward from the maple’s roots every spring and Postma Brothers Maple Syrup began tapping away on March 18th to share nature's edible gold with Michiganders everywhere.
“There is a time frame between when the ground thaws and trees start to bud that we can make syrup,” said fifth generation tapper Conservation Cpl. Kevin Postma.
An estimated 1,000 gallons of Postma family love is jarred annually from roughly 40-acres of maple trees. They are currently well over 75 percent of that goal.
“It really should be called ‘Postma Family Maple Syrup,’” said Kevin Postma. “It is a family effort because my brother and I couldn't just do it. It’s our mother, step father, my wife and in-laws that run this.”
“Kevin and I have been tapping since seven or eight-years-old,” said Chippewa County Undersheriff Gregory Postma. “Our parents gave us a section of woods to tap with the old hand bits. We tapped it, collected the buckets and they would pay us for our sap. We learned a lot about the value of hard work early in life.”
The Postma family story tells of a sugaring tradition beginning with Great-great-grandpa John Kamper, who moved from Holland with his wife and kids to Rudyard, Mich in 1901.
He passed his skills down to Bert and Tille Kamper, and John and Anna (Kamper) Postma. By late 1950, Cliff and Faye Postma had teamed up with Ray and Marie Postma to take things over.
Dale and Janice Postma partnered with Ralph and Lynn Postma from late 1980 until Dale’s passing in 1999. Today’s fifth generation taps away, remembering the heritage that gave them the sweetest of lives.
“My grandpa taught us how to tap with the hand bits by letting us put holes in the wood wall of the sugar shack,” Greg Postma said. “That didn’t last long before we were banned from honing our skills on the building itself.”
Sixth generation sugarers do not lag too far behind, walking the lines extending tree to tree. In doing so, Kevin Postma’s son Kyle listens for leaks to ensure the vacuum system extracts as much sap as possible.
“I have been doing this for 14 years; my whole life,” Kyle Postma said upon entering the family’s newly constructed sugar shack.
He absorbs all the information possible from his dad and uncle, attributing the heart of the entire operation to family and friends. That is just one of his favorite parts.
“Everybody in the family, from both sides, is involved,” Kyle Postma said. “We have dinner every night out here during season.”
He laughed with his son as they exchanged memories ranging from a sibling’s long hair getting caught and placing a bucket 10-feet up a tree using a high snow pile.
“We would tap the bucket as high as we could get it,” Kyle Postma chuckled. “We couldn’t get it down after that snowbank melted.”
Greg Postma continued on a comprehensive tour of the new shack.
“This building, here, we have been here for three years,” he said. “It is actually the fourth location on the property that we have been making syrup in. It is closer to the road, has easier access and people can see us.”
A picture of the former shack, constructed by Cliff and Ray Postma in 1974 to accommodate electricity, hung over maple boards from its original structure.
The open kettle that John Kamper used after the turn of the 20th century to boil sap has been replaced with modern evaporators; his horses replaced by tractors; and most buckets replaced by vacuum hoses to fill 15.5 gallon kegs.
“Our family were dairy farmers,” said Greg Postma. “The story I remember was during the winter and spring they had extra time in their hands, since they weren’t in the fields. Much of the older equipment we used back then came from the farm such as vacuum pumps, milk tanks and milk cans.”
Now, there are 3,300 taps connecting tubing systems.
“They are all connected to a vacuum pump,” said Kevin Postma. “It flows downhill, away from the sugar shack, to the bottom of the property. It is pumped all the way back up from underground. The sap will collect in tanks throughout the day.”
He explained that water needs to be removed from the sap because it comes out with very little sugar.
“Right now, this is testing two percent,” he displayed a watery sample. “So, we need to take out 45 gallons of water to make one gallon of syrup. We run through reverse osmosis, which takes out 60 percent of the water.”
Reverse osmosis machines pressurize the canister containing the sap, so that the water gets separated and pumped out.
“We move it to our boiler,” said Kevin Postma. “That evaporates the rest of it. We are removing water from the sap and filtering it to take out the minerals. When boiling we want it to be up to 219 degrees. Water boils at 212. That changed based on barometric temperature.”
Minerals settle at the bottom of the delicious goo, but it must be clear for commercial use. The syrup gets packaged into the kegs and repackaged into individual containers for sale. It has not always been so easy.
“When I was a kid, we didn’t have the boiler and we gathered 1,500 buckets that needed to be collected every other day,” said Kevin Postma. “We got a tractor and pulled this big slay around. We’d gather buckets and dump them in slay. Then, we would go sit by the fire and try to dry our pants off and warm up.”
Hobby producers may do something similar.
“They might drill 15 trees and make two or three gallons of syrup,” he said. “It’s the same process. The only difference is they are doing it on a turkey fryer or wood cook stove in their backyards.”
This maple syrup season has turned out to be a good one for the Postma family but not every season produces the same. Kevin Postma pointed to hanging maple boards engraved with yearly tapping dates, dating back to 1949.
“In 2012 we started boiling on March 11th and ended on March 21st, so that was a ten day season,” he said. “In 2012, it was 80 degrees for ten days in a row. We made as much syrup as we could, but it was a terrible year. It was so short. You want a ten week season if you can get it. Right now, we are right on. It is going to shape up to be a pretty good average season.”
One Postma brother serves as the Chippewa County Undersheriff, while the other is a well-known conservation officer who assisted in the rescue of an abducted five-year-old boy from Lake Superior ice in March of 2019.
Friends helping in early spring tapping and socialization include several members of local law enforcement.
“In the years past, we have had many fellow officers out to give us a hand tapping and maintaining lines,” said Greg Postma. “With new advancements and newer equipment, we’ve been able to make the process a little less labor intensive. Now we have them come visit and share stories of the ‘old way’ we used to do things.”
Of course, that was not the “old way” Great-great-grandpa John Kamper ran things with horses.
His love for maple syrup, however, flows through family roots
“One of my favorite things is sitting back, after you’ve done all the work, and watching the syrup draw off; It’s like watching the fruits of your labor, ”Kevin Postma said”
Postma Brothers (Family) Maple Syrup sells at various local grocery stores, including but not limited to markets in Pickford, Cedarville, Rudyard and Sault Ste. Marie. They also sell at multiple markets downstate. People may also call to schedule a time to pick up from the sugar shack. Simply call 906-478-3960 or email
