Garages have become synonymous with entrepreneurial innovation — before there’s a headquarters, work happens in a garage.
This was true for Angela Schumacher, co-owner of Smoky Lake Maple Products, a fabricator of maple syrup production equipment in Hilbert.
“I parked in the driveway for a few years because our garage filled up with machines,” says Schumacher, who founded the company with her husband, Jim, in 2010. “It was like that American dream, starting in the garage like we were The Ramones.”
While Smoky Lake offers a full line of equipment for tapping, boiling, testing, filtering and bottling maple syrup, the Dauntless Evaporator has quickly become the company’s signature product.
The Dauntless was developed three years ago specifically for the growing number of maple syrup hobbyists who tap only a small number of trees.
“The interest doubles every year, and the demand has been challenging to keep up with,” Schumacher says. “But it’s been exciting to see so many new people get into this hobby.”
Until the Dauntless, there was nothing on the market for small-scale syrup producers that was easily shippable and American made. The Dauntless Evaporator, which boils sap to remove water and reduces it to the concentration of syrup, was designed on an expandable platform so its production rate can increase along with the operator’s tap count.
The Dauntless also features a bolt-together design so it can be ground shipped and assembled upon delivery.
Schumacher says assembling the evaporator becomes part of the syrup making process. She enjoys receiving pictures of families putting together their Dauntless Evaporator in eager preparation for the spring maple tapping season.
“It’s about more than just maple syrup,” she says. “It gets us all together for an activity we can do when we all have a little spring fever. It’s an excuse to have a beer together and relax.”
