ANNANDALE, Minn.—Sugarmakers have gotten an early start on the 2024 maple season—even gravity producers in typically-frozen Minnesota.

Sugarmakers across the Maple Belt were drilling and boiling with gusto in January, many jumping into a season far earlier than ever before and getting good results.

“So far it’s going great!,” said Kia Czech, a sugarmaker in Annandale, Minn. who with her husband Adam, hung 330 sap bags and buckets this week.

Czech said she collected 460 gallons of sap so far with 2 percent sugar content. Their first boil on Jan. 31 sweetened the pans a little but she was hoping to have finished syrup by the weekend.

Last year her first boil was April 2.

An unusual winter thaw—or, perhaps, usual, depending on who you ask—from the Upper Midwest though the Northeast resulted in many sugarmakers tapping by Christmas and boiling by New Year’s.

“We’ve never tapped this early before,” said Matthew Emerick, of Emerick’s Maple in Hyndman, Pa., near the Maryland border.

Emerick told the Maple News that he, his father, Ed and a crew of 13 began tapping on Dec. 28, after looking at the forecast on Christmas Day and deciding it was “go time.”

“The earliest we’ve ever tapped before was Jan. 13,” Emerick said.

So far, Emerick has 9500 taps in and is already at a half a crop—60 barrels.

“The beginning was very light, then we had a freeze up about 10 days ago, and everything since has been Amber and Dark,” he said.

Sugar content has been hovering about 1.7 percent, he said. 

On Facebook, sugarmakers everywhere have been posting their early starts. Southern Wisconsin, Michigan, Northern Vermont, Maine. Everywhere, early tappers were going gangbusters.

In Ohio, OSU maple agent Les Ober reported that many sugarmakers got underway when the trees opened up around Jan. 25

“The weather in Ohio is definitely not normal,” Ober told The Maple News “Producers on high vacuum across the state are finishing up tapping and starting to boil. Big runs the last couple days. First time I have ever seen this much syrup made this early.” 

Even the U.P. of Michigan was getting started.

“The 2024 season has begun, first ever boil in January for us,” reported Derek Ross of R.M.G. Sugar Bush in Rudyard, Mich., near the Mackinaw Bridge.

David Campbell of Mapleland Farms in Salem, N.Y. said he boiled for the first time on Dec. 29, the earliest ever at his farm.

But not everyone was ready to launch into a new season so fast.

Mike Bennett of Full Throttle Maple in Ellensburg, N.Y. advised sugarmakers to think long and hard about whether to tap early or not.

“When you drill a hole, there’s a responsibility that follows,” he said.

Debbie Hartford of West Newfield, Maine agreed.

“I’d maybe tap early, but then again I’m not ready to be committed to the season just yet,” she told The Maple News.

Gary Coles, a 2,400-tap producer in Whitney Point, N.Y. said he was also going to wait a little longer, probably after this week.

“I don’t want a three month season,” Coles told The Maple News. “One and a half is good for me,”