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Season Summaries
Season Update #6: Could be a disaster in the making for some in Northeast
Peter Gregg | March 22, 2021
JOHNSTOWN, N.Y.—Could be a disaster in the making.
Despite a big sap run over the weekend and into Monday, most sugarmakers in the heart of the central Maple Belt are way behind and fretting there may not be enough time to catch up.
“It’s been a late late season,” said sugarmaker Stephen Savage of Peaceful Valley Maple Farms in Johnstown, N.Y.
As of Saturday, Savage had only made about 1,400 gallons off his 25,000 taps, a fraction of where he should be and an even smaller fraction of where he was a year ago at this time.
“By this time last year we were at 4970,” he said during a tour for The Maple News. [ MORE ]
Season Update #5: Slow going in New England so far but week ahead looks good
Peter Gregg | March 12, 2021
TEMPLE, N.H.—It’s been slow going.
That’s the word from sugarmakers around New England who are just starting to fire up this week after a long winter with no thaws and not much sap.
‘It’s been wicked slow,” said Scott Kemp who makes syrup in Rindge, N.H. and has only made 15 gallons of syrup so far off his 800 taps.
At the tree tapping ceremony with New Hampshire Gov. Christopher Sununu at Connolly Bros. Dairy and Maple in Temple, N.H. on Friday, sugarmakers were all telling the same tale of woe.
Not much of a season so far and it’s already March 12.
“You better believe I’m worried, oh my goodness,” said Charlie Hunt who taps 3,000 in Hillsborough, N.H. “But we remain optimistic.”
[ MORE ]
Season Update #4: Big run coming this weekend
Peter Gregg | February 26, 2021
RAVENNA, Ohio—Sugarmakers across the U.S. were getting ready for the first significant run of the season this weekend.
“We’re tapped and ready,” said Eric Detweiler of Ravenna, Ohio in the Northeast corner of the state.
Detweiler said he usually taps around President’s Day but this year the holiday was frozen solid.
The thaw came this week, and his 40 taps on buckets are already starting to fill.
“We got 20 gallons yesterday and 20 today,” he told The Maple News on Friday. “We’ll start boiling tomorrow.”
Ohio is off to a late start, as are many of the southern states in the Maple Belt, where sugarmakers typically make most of their crop in January and February.
[ MORE ]
Season Update #3: Cold snap everywhere shuts out the early crop hopefuls
Peter Gregg | February 16, 2021
LUTSEN, Minn.—Twenty six below is not exactly ideal tapping weather.
“Yeah we got a cold spell so we're sitting and waiting, chomping at the bit to get back out there,” said Kirstin van den Berg of Sawtooth Mountain Maple Syrup Co. in Lutsen, Minn.
van den Berg said she and her crew of six tappers were humming along for a 7 day stretch of good weather, getting about 14,000 drilled before the cold snap came and shut them down the past couple of days.
“We’re taking a break,” she told The Maple News on Tuesday.
She said the temps in her area of the Upper Midwest should go back up above the 20 degree mark, where most experts say is the line for tapping. Tapping in temps colder than that can split trees. [ MORE ]
Season Update #1: Early tappers jump the season, but most sugarmakers prepping
Peter Gregg | January 13, 2021
BAINBRIDGE, Ohio—Some southern tapping areas are starting to wake up to a new season.
“As I watched this year’s weather patterns, I got the itch and decided to set these taps even earlier than normal,” said Dana F. Schmidt, who tapped on December 16 at his operation in Bainbridge, southern Ohio.
Schmidt put out 50 early taps on buckets that he dedicated for early tapping. It's something he has done for the past four seasons with varying degrees of success, he said.
This year has been pretty good.
“I have had 4 runs that averaged around 40 -50 gallons of sap each from the 50 taps in the past week,” he said in late December. [ MORE ]
Vermont leads the way as U.S. sugarmakers break production record
Peter Gregg | June 14, 2020
HARRISBURG, Pa.—The U.S. broke a syrup production record in the 2020 season, according to the USDA annual syrup production survey.
Combined with the record crop in the province of Quebec, the 2020 season produced the biggest global crop in history.
Sugarmakers in the United States made 4.372 million gallons of syrup, breaking the old record is 4.199 set in the 2018 season.
Leading the way was the state of Vermont, which had its all-time best year with 2.22 million gallons produced. New York was in second with 804,000 gallons made and Maine was third with 590 gallons. [ MORE ]
Quebec crop smashes production record
Peter Gregg | May 29, 2020
LONGUEIL, Que.—Quebec sugarmakers smashed the province’s syrup production record this season.
Production this spring came in at 175 million pounds of syrup, an average of 3.59 pounds per tap, according to the Maple Syrup Producers of Quebec (PPAQ) and the Maple Industry Council (CIE).
The number far outpaced last year’s production total of 159 million pounds, the previous record. The province has approximately 11,300 producers and claims to make 72 percent of the global maple syrup crop.
[ MORE ]
Season Update #9: Sap still flowing while retail lags
Peter Gregg | April 3, 2020
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt.—A cascade of coronavirus cancelations has wiped out maple marketing but that hasn’t stopped the sap.
“We’ve had a great year, I think it's going to be the biggest season we ever had,” said Bruce Chapell of Templeton Farm Maple & Beef of East Montpelier, Vt. on Friday.
Chapell was hoping for one or two more good runs this week before the season quit, but was planning on reaching 1100 gallons on his 2,700 taps.
“We’re making very dark,” Chapell said. “It’s really good smooth flavor.”
Meanwhile, it has been an early shutdown for many sugarmakers in the central strip of the Maple Belt.
At Dry Brook Sugarhouse in Salem, N.Y. sugarmakers Kevin Keyes and Bob Chambers called it quits last weekend, coming up far short of their goal of 4,000 gallons they hoped to make this year.
“We only made 2,400,” Keyes said. [ MORE ]
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