Saint John’s Maple Syrup

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A sap-run is the sweet goodbye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of sun and frost.

John Burroughs “Signs & Season” (1886)

Saint John’s Maple Syrup is a partnership between Saint John’s Abbey and Saint John’s University to continue the tradition of producing maple syrup while providing opportunities for education and service to the community.

Volunteer Information

Volunteers are an integral part of the syruping process at Saint John’s. We need help with everything from tapping trees and sap collection, to cooking syrup and working at our festivals. Our major production, when our volunteers are needed most, occurs during even-numbered years.

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directions to sugar shack
Education & Events

Join our email list or follow us on social media to receive updates about upcoming maple syrup events.

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For Educators – Request a Field Trip

Students of all ages can learn about maple syrup! Field trips typically include:

Scouts, 4H, Youth Groups, Private Tours, Etc.

We recommend joining us at our Maple Syrup Festival for a fun, outdoor, hands-on experience! To inquire about tour availability, email [email protected].

Maple Syrup Merchandise

Hats – $20 ea.

Shirts – $20 ea.

Saint John’s Maple Syrup is not for sale. To get a taste of our syrup, join us at events. To take home your own bottle, sign up to volunteer and report your hours to us so we can thank you at the end of the season.

A Brief History of Saint John’s Maple Syrup
  • 1942. In response to sugar shortages during WWII, Saint John’s begins making maple syrup from sugar maple trees in the Abbey Arboretum. 150 taps were put out in the inaugural season. The first sugar shack is built by the old ski hill. Trees were tapped once every 2-3 years due to the high amount of work involved, with sometimes as many as 3,700 taps in a season.
  • 1970. Sugar shack burns down under suspicious circumstances. A new sugar shack is built at its present location and a used evaporator is bought to aid in syrup cooking. Records of maple syrup production between 1942 and 1970 were lost in the fire.
  • 1974. The highest number of taps were installed (3700). Also the year of the latest date of first sap collection of the season (April 3).
  • 1996. A small addition is added to the south side of the sugar shack for better wood storage and easier access for loading wood into the evaporator.
  • 2002. Saint John’s Outdoor University (formerly Saint John’s Arboretum) is given joint responsibility for the maple syrup operation to increase education outreach, coordinate volunteers and assist with making syrup production an annual occurrence at Saint John’s.
  • 2009. The south addition to sugar shack was added to increase educational space for sugar shack tours.
  • 2012. An early (too) warm spring! Lowest number of gallons of syrup produced in a season (39)
  • 2013. With the help of generous donors, the Abbey purchased two new evaporators. The production evaporator, “Big Burnie,” can boil sap at a rate of 175-200 gallons per hour. A smaller evaporator, “Little Larry,” was purchased for educational purposes. It can be fired with much smaller quantities of sap making it possible to have sap cooking during most tours throughout the season.
  • 2024. Year the earliest dates of tapping (Jan 30), first sap collection (Feb 2). This season also broke the previous record of the most gallons of syrup produced in a season (579, previous record was 560 gal in 1985).

Annual Reports

Maple Syrup Resources
Tips for making maple syrup
maple faq
News Archive

Websites:

Suppliers:

Books:

Saint John’s Educational & Historical Information:

Contact Us

Owen Connell
preK-12 Education
320-363-3133

John Geissler
Community Education
Syrup Production Information
320-363-3126

Congrats to 2017 SJU graduates Ian Fritz, Conor, Murphy, and Patrick Reagan on receiving an Upper Midwest Emmy® Chapter/Foundation Student Crystal Pillare Award at the 2018 NATAS-Upper Midwest Student Production Awards. The three started SSQTCH as an independent student start-up in the spring of 2015.