BACK TO HOME
Season Summaries
Season Update #5: Big weekend in the Northeast
Peter Gregg | March 17, 2025
HILLSBOROUGH, N.H.—Sugarmakers in the Northeast just had the biggest four day run in many years, but now the heat wave begins.
"It's been ripping," said sugarmaker Charlie Hunt, Jr. of Hunt's Family Maple in Hillsboro, N.H. "I haven't seen it this way in a long time."
The Hunt operation has boiled seven times so far this season, after only starting up two weeks ago.
Sugar content in the sap has been good. 2.2 percent said Charlie Hunt, Sr.
Down the road in Washington, N.H. the Atkins family was also busy this weekend, getting buried in sap Friday and Saturday.
"It's been a good steady run," Shawn Atkins told the Maple News on Saturday.
The farm was a popular stop on the Maple Open House Weekend tour in New Hampshire.
Over in Loudon, N.H. 9,000-tap sugarmaker Stefan Lillios was going strong too.
'This is our second full week," Lillios told the Maple News on Friday. ""It's been a slow start. There was so much snow in the ground the trees were not ready to thaw out just yet."
Down the road at Wind Swept Maples, Larry Moore and sons, Jeff, Brad and Sam had been very busy boiling.
"This is how sugaring used to be," Jeff Moore said. "A long winter. The hardest winter we can remember since 2015." [ MORE ]
Season Update #4: Quiet in Northern Vt so far
Peter Gregg | March 4, 2025
WEST BURKE, Vt.—Not much sap in the big Northern Vermont production areas, as sugarmakers wade through waist deep snow and wait for sugaring weather to arrive.
“It’s run only a little bit,” said 9,600-tap producer Kurt Solinsky of Pure Gold Sugaring in West Burke, who hosted the VMSMA’s Governor Tree Tapping event yesterday with Gov. Phil Scott. “It just keeps snowing, a few inches every day.”
Solinsky said this winter has been the most severe in many years.
“This is like the winters we used to get when I was a kid.”
He has not made much syrup at all.
Shawn Messier of 5,300-tap Messier Family Sugarhouse in Walden, Vt. and president of the Caldedonia Maple Association said it has been the same at his farm.
“This is an ‘old school’ winter,” he said at the event. “This is the worst winter we’ve had since 2001 and that year was the least amount of sap we ever got.”
Mark Isselhardt, the Maple Specialist for the UVM Ext. Maple Program said there has been some syrup made in Vermont, but a slower start than the previous couple of seasons. [ MORE ]
Season Update #3: Trees waking up this week, but slowly
Peter Gregg | February 25, 2025
COPENHAGEN, N.Y.—Trees are starting to wake up in most of the Maple Belt. But for some, it may be a while yet until they see some sap.
“We got five feet of snow outside,” said 300-tap sugarmaker Michael Eisel of Copenhagen, N.Y., a town in the direct landing zone of lake effect snow off Lake Ontario in Northern NY.
“This is a good old fashioned winter like we used to have,” he said.
In fact, this has been the snowiest and coldest winter in most of the U.S. and Canada in at least seven years, meaning early boilers were shut out. [ MORE ]
Season Update #2: Not much happening other than cold
Peter Gregg | February 13, 2025
WESTFIELD, Vt.—What a difference a year makes.
At this time last year most sugarmakers were in the midst of their biggest sap runs of the season.
But this year—not so much.
Drips and drabs in the southern producing regions and that’s about it.
Even the big sugarmakers in Northern Vermont and New York, who started tapping in December, are locked up.
“We have more snow than I have seen in a long time,” said Jacques Couture of Couture’s Maple Shop in Westfield, Vt. “We have 5000 of our 8000 tapped. More snow tonight and another foot Sunday!”
Some sugarmakers in southern Ohio have made some syrup. But not much. And Kentucky a little bit too. [ MORE ]
Season Update #1: Early boilers and a cold snap
Peter Gregg | January 3, 2025
FAIRFIELD, Vt.—The early boilers have been busy, but a cold snap will slow them down.
“We’ve boiled four times now,” said Gary Corey of Corey’s Maple Orchard in Fairfield, Vt. including a boil on New Year’s Day.
He said the sugar content has been about 1.2 percent.
As of Jan. 3, Corey had about 40,000 taps drilled, he told The Maple News.
He expects to be boiling off of 170,000 taps when the season gets underway in earnest in Northern Vermont.
His tapping crew started in early December and collected sap Dec. 14 for the first time.
Nearby, the Branon family in Fairfield also boiled on New Year’s Day, and have been filling barrels since Dec. 20. [ MORE ]
Quebec crop officially a record breaker at 239 million pounds
Peter Gregg | June 7, 2024
DRUMMONDVILLE, Que.—As predicted, the Quebec syrup crop this season was a record breaker at 239 million pounds.
The membership of Québec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP) federation, gathered this week in Drummondville for the organization’s annual general meeting, and announced the official 2024 figures, compiled in a phone survey by Groupe AGÉCO.
That production total equaled an average 4.47 pounds per tap in the province, and a total value of some $750 Million.
The U.S. crop is also expected to be a record breaker. The USDA will announce the U.S. crop totals next week.
“And the syrup is of excellent quality,” said QMSP President Luc Goulet. “This record harvest will allow us to serve the rising demand from domestic and foreign consumers.” 85% of the maple syrup produced in Québec is destined for export. [ MORE ]
Possible record breaking crop in Quebec
Peter Gregg | May 13, 2024
LONGUEUIL, Que.—Could be a whopper of a crop in Quebec. Maybe the biggest ever.
“We are now on a path that makes us believe we can also have our best harvest of all time,” said Joel Vaudeville, spokesman for the Quebec maple producers federation.
Some sugarmakers with knowledge of the industry in the provovince have whispered that it could shatter the 2022 record crop of 220 million pounds.
The federation will announce the crop total at the end of the month, but almost all anecdotal discussion says it will be big.
What is certain is that the crop will exceed last year’s relatively paltry sum, which was the worst crop in Quebec since 2008. [ MORE ]
Season Update #6: Could be a huge crop
Peter Gregg | April 12, 2024
WASHINTON, Vt.—It could be a big crop.
Sugarmakers in the U.S. are winding down their seasons, with many expecting the crop to rival the 2022 season, which was the biggest ever.
“This is my 39th year making syrup and this year will be my best,” said 800-tap sugarmaker Bob Capobianco in Washington, Vt.
Sam Schmucker in Mio, Michigan also had a big crop, and was still going.
“We’ve made 2600 off of 4200 taps and we’re still going,” he told The Maple News late last week.
Bill Haley in Schoharie, N.Y. said it was his best year ever, also. It was his biggest year and earliest year in 50 years of sugaring.
“It ran like crazy in February, then we got weird weather,” Haley told The Maple News.
Haley said he tapped at the end of January, the earliest ever. He had his first boil on Feb. 9. [ MORE ]
Special
Subscription
Fall
Sale!
© 2025 The Maple News