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.

In Hyndman, Pa., the Emerick family has boiled three times already, with the first boil coming on Dec. 28.

“We’ve made 842 gallons so far and boiled three times,” said Matthew Emerick. 

He said sugar at his farm has been 1.8 percent.

In Alstead, N.H. sugarmaker Alan Dustin got out early.

"We started tapping on Dec. 14 and as of Dec. 29, we had 9,300 taps set," Dustin told The Maple News on Friday. 

Dustin said he started the pumps on Dec. 29 and pulled sap through Thursday, gathering 24,000 gallons of 1.2 sap during the four day stretch.

"We boiled on January first and second and made 165 gallons of amber the first day and 143 gallons of golden the second day," he reported.

Nearby, at Mitch’s Maples in Chester, Vt., Mark Mitchell also got a jump start.

He boiled on New Year’s day off of 2,600 taps drilled and made 70 gallons.

“We’re out tapping today and expect to be done by next Tuesday or Wednesday,” Mitchell told The Maple News on Friday.

But all boiling in the U.S. will be coming to a screeching halt this weekend, with plummeting temperatures.

In fact, a major cold snap, predicted to be one of the worst in 40 years, could last weeks.

“This is shaping up to be an old fashioned winter,” said Les Ober, the Ohio State University maple specialist in Northeast Ohio. 

Ober warned sugarmakers last month that this could be a cold winter and that early tapping might be risky.

“What we are seeing right now is that there will be no real opportunity to collect sap, even with vacuum, through the month of January,” Ober told The Maple News on Friday.

“This is a result of this being a La Niña year, which means it will be totally different than the El Niño winters we’ve had the past three years, which were unusually warm,” Ober said.