Last modified: 2/24/2015 12:09:24 AM
Knee-high snow blanketed acres of maple orchard at Sunnyside Maples in Loudon.
Owner Mike Moore said last week he is ready to start tapping trees – the vacuum system that sucks sap from the maples is set and the new reverse osmosis machine is installed. Now, Moore’s just waiting for the weather to cooperate. He’s not alone among sugar makers, who are waiting for a warm stretch to begin tapping trees, he said.
“Sugar makers are the most optimistic people you’re ever going to find,” said Moore, a fourth-generation maple farmer. “We have to go in thinking it’s going to be the best year.”
In an average year the farm will produce 1,000 gallons of maple syrup. The slow start shouldn’t have a major impact on his production, but the continued cold and snow have, for some, postponed the tapping of maple trees. For now, the farmers are keeping their eye on the forecasts.
“We are one of the few businesses that is 100 percent weather-reliant,” Moore said. “I think the week after next, maybe the first week in March; it looked like in the long-range forecast we might be able to get started then.”
Tap too early, he said, and farmers take two risks: first, that nothing will happen because the tree is still dormant, and second, that the wood splits around the spout, causing sap to leak and less of it to be collected.
2014 was a good year for maple producers, who made 112,000 gallons of syrup. This was down from a banner 2013 that yielded 124,000 gallons of maple syrup, but up from a rough 2012, when 76,000 gallons of syrup were produced.
This is an important time for syrup makers, as sap typically starts flowing when temperatures stay below freezing overnight and nudge above freezing during the day. Ideal conditions include day and nighttime temperatures ranging from mid-20s to mid-40s, Moore said.
Most years, Moore will try to tap during the week of Presidents Day. He will likely have to tap before temperatures hit 40 degrees, he said. It will take between four days and a week to tap about 600 spouts on the farm, depending on the snow.
“The beginning and length of production season, and therefore the quantity of syrup, is very weather dependent,” said Gail McWilliams Jellie, director of agricultural development at the state Department of Agriculture. “The sap doesn’t flow until we have warmer temperatures, and the snow cover can have an impact as well.”
Not every farm has waited to tap, said Robyn Pearl, a maple syrup maker at Pearl and Sons Farm in Loudon and publicist for the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association, which represents 400 maple farms in the state.
“Everyone is anxious to get going,” Pearl said. “It will probably start a little later than usual, but it’s hard to say. As daunting as it looks out there in the woods, maybe we’ll have a warm stretch.”
By most accounts, the weather should break before March 10, when Gov. Maggie Hassan is expected to tap a maple tree to kick off the season. The annual New Hampshire Maple Weekend is scheduled for March 28 and 29, when sugar houses across the state will host events.
“The weather might slow things down, but it’s not going to deter the season,” Pearl said.
(Iain Wilson can be reached at 369-3313 or iwilson@cmonitor.com or on Twitter@iainwilsoncm.)