Lloyd Munsee, a local producer of maple syrup and maple products, will be presenting the program for the Women’s Club of Lakewood on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church on Fairmount Avenue. His program is entitled “Big Tree Maple.”

Munsee has been interested in the making of maple syrup since he was a young boy at home on a small dairy farm.

“Back then I always liked to go to the neighbor’s sugar shack and watch them boil sap. I also worked as a teenager for a farmer who made maple syrup. I started doing it here in New York in 1993 as a project to get my son involved with maple syrup making. We started with 40 taps and a homemade barrel type boiler on the back porch of the house,” Munsee said.

“This year it is taking about 50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, and we do all of our boiling inside our sugar house which is designed for that purpose. We can process about 700 gallons of sap per hour,” continued Munsee. “This year we have about 1,200 taps of our own, and we are buying sap from others so the total number of taps we are boiling from is between 3,000 and 4,000 taps.”

Last year Munsee made slightly more than 1,000 gallons of syrup. The season for making maple syrup is generally about six weeks long, according to Munsee, but varies with the individual year. They sell syrup and other maple products direct at the “farm gate” and on their website: www.bigtreemaple.com. They also sell at a few craft shows and to some wholesale customers.

“I consider it a part-time business at this time,” he said, “but the reality is I now work at maple syrup almost full time since I have retired. I do something related to maple almost every day all year long.”

The co-chairwomen for the event are Linda Scotty and Lisa Johnson. Members are encouraged to bring a guest to this interesting program. The club is composed of women with a Lakewood address who are dedicated to supporting the Village of Lakewood, its Fire Department and Auxiliary, and the Lakewood Memorial Library.

It also raises money for scholarships and supports the beautification of the gardens, street planters, and parks of the village. For more information about membership, contact Becky Danielson, membership chair, at 763-5711.