Meet Phil Hanner, A Jackson County Maple Syrup Producer If you’ve ever visited Pioneer Village at the Indiana State Fair you’ve probably met Phil Hanner. Phil enthusiastically greets visitors to Pioneer Village each year, swapping “sugaring” tales and telling anyone who shows an interest about making maple syrup. Phil, along with three generations of Hanners live on their family farm in Jackson County near Norman Station. The farm is bordered on three sides by the Hoosier National Forest, and covers a mile in length. Phil taps 500 maple trees a year, but says, “I could do twice that many.” We visited the Hanner’s sugarbush in mid-January. Phil uses plastic tubing to collect sap. The tubing is attached to taps in the trees, and hoses run between trees, draining the sap into collecting tanks. When we visited, his lines were in place, but the trees had not yet been tapped for the season. The Early Years Though Phil is the first of his family to really get into making maple syrup, the seed was planted for him to be a sugarer even before he was born. “My granddad was a timberman and he not only kept his own timber cut but he would buy other tracts from people. There were 11 children, and they cut timber and that’s how they made it through the depression. I said to my dad, ‘How’s come that whole ridge over there has got so many sugar trees on it?’ He said, ‘Well, your granddad always made us leave them when we was cuttin’ timber. He said somebody may want to do some sugarin’ some day.’ Well I said, ‘I’m the man!’” "They started off using iron kettles to boil the sap, but gradually moved to more sophisticated equipment." Phil and his wife Mary started making syrup just to show their children how the process worked. “We’d done enough of it as kids just on an old wooden stove up on the holler that I knew you’d cook that stuff for a week and not have a cup!” One spring they tapped a couple of trees in their yard, and the next spring they tapped a few more. Phil recalls, “We had this old wood stove here in the basement, and I had a stainless steel pan made big enough to fit on the top of that. When the kids were little they’d get up in the morning before school and go wade across the creek and carry that stuff in. We’d collect it in milk cans.” They started off using iron kettles to boil the sap, but gradually moved to more sophisticated equipment. One year at the state fair Phil saw a replica of an evaporator and a dealer demonstrating it. He told Phil he wouldn’t be cooking all night with this new evaporator. That was enough to convince Phil to upgrade. Though the cooking process was more efficient, Phil still spent days and nights cooking down sap. “I made 100 gallons of syrup with it one year, and I lived in that sugar house. I never gathered one drop of sap that year. I was busy night and day in there. I spent from Wednesday night till Sunday in there until I was about half crazy.” Phil has learned a lot over his years making syrup. One lesson is if there’s a fire in the evaporator, don’t leave. “You’re supposed to cook it as hard as you can and quick, but you can’t just walk off and leave it. One time I’d been out there night and day and was worn out. It was 18 degrees out that morning. My dad came along and talked me into taking a nap. I bet I hadn’t been in there an hour when he came to the back door and said, ‘Tell Phil I’ve had a problem but I got it under control.’ Well I bailed out of that bed and went down there and there was sap running down putting my fire out. It had melted my flues out of my pan. I spent 36 hours putting it back together.” Tubing carries sap from the maples to a collection point. A Modern Maple Syrup Operation When you step into the Hanner’s sugarhouse today the first thing you’ll notice is how clean it is. Phil believes in a clean operation, and takes extra steps all through the process to ensure this. “I’m probably too particular. I always have been I guess. I don’t want dirt in my syrup and I want my sap filtered - I have from day one. Old men used to laugh at me. I clean everything in the spring. I absolutely hate bacteria.” No matter how long he’s been cooking or how tired Phil is at the end of the day, he cleans all of his equipment before calling it a day. “I’ll quit here at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, and as soon as I finish up I wash everything. When we get done gathering sap, we wash that tank. When I get done here in the sugarhouse, I don’t care if it’s blowing snow and rain outside, I wash the tank. I just take time to do it.” He has devised a method of collecting the steam that is created during the cooking process, which he runs through the equipment at the end of the day to keep things clean. The sugarhouse is insulated, and houses a modern wood-fired stainless steel evaporator with hoods, preheaters and finishing pans and a gas-powered filter-press to filter the finished syrup. You could say Phil has become an expert at the art and science of making maple syrup. He enjoys teaching others about his craft both at the Indiana State Fair, and at his Jackson County home. He is also active with the Indiana Maple Syrup Association (IMSA) and has served as their director, and also represented IMSA at the North American Maple Syrup Council. For information on the Indiana Maple Syrup Association visit www.indianamaplesyrup.org. <back to top>

All Feature Articles, artwork and photographs ©2001 by Dervish Design. Some information on the 'County Info' pages is taken directly from brochures published by Visitors Bureaus and Chambers of Commerce.