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Maple runs underway but unpredictable in St. Lawrence County

Posted 3/18/12

By CRAIG FREILCH The beginning of the maple sap run seems to be moving earlier into February, in recent years local maple producers say. But this year’s unusual weather has them wondering what the …

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Maple runs underway but unpredictable in St. Lawrence County

Posted

By CRAIG FREILCH

The beginning of the maple sap run seems to be moving earlier into February, in recent years local maple producers say.

But this year’s unusual weather has them wondering what the harvest will be like this year.

Grace Hargrave says she and her husband Jim generally take a “wait and see” attitude at Brandy-View Farms in Madrid. They have put in about 900 taps, all on tubing, as opposed to buckets.

“Usually I tell people ‘I’ll tell you in May how we did,’” Grace said.

Hugh Newton, proprietor of Hugh’s Sugar Shack on State Rt. 56 between Hannawa Falls and Colton and president of the St. Lawrence County Maple Producers Association, says that while he had a good year last, there’s really no way to predict how one season will turn out. That’s because the requisite cycle of sub-freezing nights and above-freezing days is never a predictable one.

“We’re usually done by the middle of April,” Newton said, “but it could be all over with next week. I hope not. We like to get three or four good weeks in anyway.”

But he holds with the date of late April or early May as when he can tell how he did, not so much because of how much sap he boiled into how many gallons of the prized syrup, but because “that’s when you know what the bulk price will be.

“The Canadians are done by then,” he said, and the producers there, mainly in Quebec, are the last to report what they have to add to the market total.

As for the flow of sap and of the warmer weather we’ve been having, Newton said, “one weekend might be only halfway decent, but then it might get cold again” setting the stage for a more substantial run when the limbs get warmed up again during the day.

And it’s not simply an “on or off” situation, but sap flow is very variable, said Charlie Hitchman, farm supervisor for Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Learning Farm near Canton.

Hitchman said he recently a good run of sap the day before and he had been up until 1 a.m. boiling it down.

Even the days of exceptionally warm weather last week probably would not shut off the flow, he said.

“If we keep getting some nights when it freezes, when it warms up we should get some good run.”

He also said a fair amount of available moisture in the soil is important.

“A cold night, a warm day, and a little rain or snow,” is how he described the ideal conditions.

“But you don’t want wind. It dries the trees out. The sun really helps,” he said. A warmer day is important after a colder night, “but when it’s sunny, it ought to run like crazy.”

Another factor in production is sugar content. Hitchman said earlier this season he measured the content of the sap he was boiling at 2.9 percent, “a little high compared to previous years. Nice and sweet.” The higher the sugar content, the less you have to boil the sap down, and the less sap you need to get a gallon of syrup.

Hugh Newton said the sugar content usually starts out low, rises during the season, and begins to drop off again.

He said he has put in 800 taps this year, all into tubing, with about 500 on a vacuum system.

At the Learning Farm, Hitchman said he has put in about 1,200 taps, “mostly on tubing. I’ve got about 60 buckets out.” The tubing is a gravity-feed system collecting the sap into tanks, so using buckets and pouring out each bucket into a larger vessel is unnecessary. It is becoming more popular very year.

Also gaining in popularity are vacuum systems attached to the tubing, which actually suck the sap out of the tree, sometimes doubling sap collection.

“Yes, it raises the amount greatly,” Hitchman said. “And all the research shows it does not hurt the trees,” he said.

But how long into the spring the flow will last is the question no one can answer.

The hope is there will be plenty of sap for the annual Maple Weekends coming up March 17 and 18 and March 25 and 26, where the producers show how it’s done and all the things they make with the syrup, and the traditional pancake breakfasts with fresh local maple syrup.

The Extension Learning Farm doesn’t participate in the Maple Weekends because they have tours and demonstrations all the time. Hitchman invites people to stop out any time, especially if they see smoke coming out of the chimney at the sugar house.

For tours at the farm through April 5, for a nominal fee, or for more info, call 379-9192.