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Bob Bushee of Bob’s Maple Shop in Manchester, Vt. was running his 5,000 gallons of sap to 11 percent concentrate on Feb. 1, getting ready for his first boil of the season. The Bushee family started tapping Jan. 23.
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Lainie Dufresne, 13, of Dufresne's Sugar House in Williamsburg, Mass. taps the first tree of the 2016 season on Jan. 15. The family plans to drill about 6,000 taps for the season at their busy operation along Route 9 in the Berkshires.
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Richard Lockerby of Chester, Vt. and his hired man, Larry Sheehan boil in the sugarhouse on April 3 during maple open house weekend. Lockerby saved sap from the previous week to be able to put on a show for visitors during the weekend.
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Brad, Jeff and father Larry Moore of Loudon, N.H. move around full barrels in the sugarhouse on Feb. 12. The men made 600 gallons during the frantic early season run of Feb. 1 through Feb. 8.
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Neil Walling checks a tank as Tonya Walling preps the filter press during the first boil on Jan. 11. Walling says it makes sense to get the first boil in early in the season to “get the bugs out” and be ready for the season when it begins in earnest.
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Bob Wood of Pawlet, Vt. checks a tank on Feb. 2 during a big sap run in the East. Wood said this is the earliest he has ever been tapped, scrambling to get his 3,000 holes drilled in time for the warm spell that came this week.
US maple crop way up over last year
4.2 million gallons
By PETER GREGG |
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Official Maple Syrup Almanac, maple, sap, crop, Vermont, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Michigan, USDA, yield, tap
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ALBANY -- The United States maple crop came in at 4.207 million gallons, a massive jump over last year's crop of 3.434 million gallons, according to the statistics service of the U.S. agriculture department.
Once again leading the nation, Vermont smashed previous totals, barreling and jugging 1.990 million gallons.
Last year the state made 1.410 million gallons of syrup. New York also had a huge year, with 707,000 gallons made, ranking second in the nation, according to USDA.
Maine came in at 675,000 gallons.
Other big states were Wisconsin at 235,000 gallons and New Hampshire at 169,000 gallons.
Ohio made 70,000 gallons, about half of last year's crop, USDA said. Michigan was also down with 90,000 gallons made, USDA said.
The U.S had 12.5 million taps out this season, up from 11.9 million taps last year.
Yield per tap was calculated at .33 gallons per tap this year, according to USDA.
Complete statistics will be available in the Official Maple Syrup Almanac, which will be published in July.
June 2016