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.

He boiled on Christmas Eve.

“It’s some extra work and cleaning, but it still is fun making Christmas syrup,” Schmidt said.

His sugar content hasn’t been the greatest, about 1.2 percent to 1.4 percent.  Most of his syrup has been Amber rich, he said.

Ray Gingerich, a sugarmaker in Orwell, Ohio also put some Christmas taps out this year, just for experiment.

“We had ten taps out in the front yard,” Gingerich said. 

They didn’t run too much.  The sun hasn’t come out in his area in two weeks, he said.

In New England, Richard Veilleux of South Windsor, Conn. was boiling on Jan. 1.

‘We enjoyed making syrup on New Year’s Day for the first time ever,” he said.

He’s been boiling right along through early January, getting a jump on most other producers in the region.

In the Midwest, the winter has been mild so far.

“We’re ready to tap,” said Peter Roth, owner of Roth Sugar Bush in Cadott, Wisc.  “We’re eyeballing the weather.”

Most medium and smaller sugarmakers are in early prepping mode rather than tapping just yet.

Kevin Sayre in Westport, N.Y. was getting into the woods.

"Right now we’re in the process of changing drop lines,” Sayre said.

Chris Casbohm in Albion, Pa. was also in the early stages of getting ready for the '21 season.

“We’re starting to clean up the sugarhouse, getting ready,” Casbohm said.  "We’re probably a month away.  It’s a little too early right now.  Haven’t seen a lot of winter yet.”