WILLIAMSBURG, Mass.—Drills have been humming this week and a lot of syrup was made during one of the warmest Januarys in recorded history.

After a forecasted deep freeze this weekend in the east, a warm up next week could get the trees juicing, sugarmakers say.

“We’re going to be drilling and getting as many in as we can before the run starts next week, possibly even Monday,” said Keith Dufresne of Dufresne’s Sugarhouse in Williamsburg, Mass., during a visit from The Maple News on Thursday. “We had a lot of downed trees to get to first.”

Dufresne on Thursday was like a lot of sugarmakers who were looking at their phones and seeing a week ahead of many freezing nights and temps in the mid-40s, shaping up to be the first bona fide sap run of the 2023 season.

That is not to say that a lot of syrup has not been made already—much has.

The early tappers have been out in force, many since Dec. and have made syrup right along through the New Year.

An unusually warm January made it easy to work in the woods and make syrup.

"We made about 20 drums of Golden on January 17," said Randy Sprague, a 25,000-tap sugarmaker in Portville, N.Y.

Sprague said it was the earliest he'd ever made syrup and it was the first time in a long time that he even made any Golden.

"And we needed some good syrup," he said.

Glenn Goodrich, a guest speaker at the New Hampshire maple meeting last week also got a head start.

"This is the earliest I've ever boiled," he told The Maple News. Goodrich taps 160,000 in Eden and Cabot, Vt. and started tapping in mid-Dec.

Even though he got out early, the sugar content in his 2023 sap was disappointing so far.

"Oh, it was about point oh eight," Goodrich said with a laugh.

How did it taste? "Not great but good," he said.

Matt Patch in Lebanon, N.H. already had his 50,000 taps in by Jan. 21. A lack of snowpack in the woods helped.

"The bare ground made it easy to tap," he said.

Patch's early sap too was only 1 percent, he said.

Even though sugar tests were low, sap flow was high for those who were ready for it early.

Larry Moore in Loudon, N.H. was getting 3.5 gallons of sap per tap on Jan. 9, he told The Maple News.

Moore also breeds lambs and lambing time usually comes the first week in February, he said.

"Usually it's lambs, then sap," Moore said, explaining the calendar order of agriculture on his farm. "We haven't had a year in a while where it's sap, then lambs."

Neil Walling, who taps 9,000 in Norwich, N.Y. and has a long history of tapping early, got out with his drill on Dec. 18 and almost has all of his taps in.

“It was a good January for us, our second best ever,” Walling said.

Walling made 600 gallons of syrup so far off of 40,000 gallons of sap, he told The Maple News. 

"We got a later start this year compared to last year when we started on Dec. 7 becasue I was sick," he said.

Tyler Webb in Lake Sunapee, N.H. said he hoped to have about 3,500 taps drilled in time for the possible sap run next week.

In all, he expects to be boiling off of 7,000 taps this season.

Webb said he has four different woods in four locations, including a new set of woods 40 minutes away from the sugarhouse that will be brand new.

"It will be a wild trip," he told The Maple News. "We just bought a 4th haul truck and will have 6 of us working full time."

Facebook chatrooms were lighting up with sugarmakers making syrup during this mild January, one of the mildest in recorded history, according to Aaron Wilson, Ph.d , a climatologist with Ohio State University.
All due to climate change, Wilson said. Get used to it.

Meanwhile, in the Midwest, the season is still a long ways off.

“We got 100 inches of snow on the ground," said Ron Wills, a 4,300-tap sugarmaker in Lutsen, Minn. along Lake Superior. “We had a guy out in the woods digging lines out all week.”

Still, even with all of the snow, Wills said there is no frost in the ground.

At Roth Sugar Bush in Cadott, Wisc. sugarmakers were in long lines at the sales counter stocking up on supplies for the season.

The store, also known as CDL Wisconsin, has an open house event through Saturday.