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	Podcast:		Local Features by WXPR
	Episode:		Variations On A Tradition: Making Maple Syrup In The Northwoods
	Category:		Government & Organizations
	Duration:		00:04:19
	Publish Date:		2020-04-03 05:23:00
	Description:		Each spring the hardwood forests of the Northwoods come alive with activity as the process of collecting maple sap begins. The people doing this work range from large commercial operations to single individuals tapping a few trees. As part of WXPR’s We Live Up Here series, we visited two very different operations before social distancing guidelines went into effect. The first stop was a visit with Joe Polak, owner of Maple Hollow, nestled in a dense maple forest just northeast of Merrill. As you walk into the evaporator building down a hallway lined with hanging snowshoes you first notice the warmth, on this cool damp day, and the sweet smell of evaporating sap. The evaporator, about the size of a small pickup truck, transforms sap into maple syrup. One person oversees running the evaporator, and at least two others do various tasks including filling the 50-gallon drums of finished syrup. Polak is now a third-generation maple syrup producer. “My grandfather started it. He moved here in
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