With a warmer than usual winter, local maple producers report that they’ve already begun tapping. From the Union Leader:
It’s warm, but maple sugaring season may be OK
This year’s mild winter in New Hampshire has the potential to cut short maple syrup production, but sugar makers say you never can tell what a sugaring season will bring.
“It’s a funny year because the way the weather has been trending, what happens in March will tell what happens in the season,” said Robyn Pearl, publicist for the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association.
Pearl has been hearing from many of the association’s 420 members.
“The season right now seems to be coming along sooner rather than later,” Pearl said.
The sugaring season usually runs from late February to early April, but sugar makers in the southern part of the state have already begun to tap their trees.
The lack of snow cover could be a problem, Pearl said.
“It doesn’t allow the trees to stay as cold as it needs to be at night; without the snow cover it doesn’t keep the ground cold,” Pearl said.
The fluctuation between cold nights — about 20 degrees — and warm days — in the high 30s to low 40s — makes the sap flow, said Jim Fadden Jr., who is the sixth generation of his family to sugar at Fadden’s Sugar House in North Woodstock.
“No matter what anybody tells you, groundhogs or otherwise, what matters in sugaring is the weather during the season, which is warm days and cold nights,” Fadden said. Read more…
Mark your calendar — Maple Weekend, an annual event sponsored by the New Hampshire Maple Producers, is planned for March 24 – 25. For more information: www.nhmapleproducers.com.