Maine Maple Sunday kicks off this weekend

On the cusp of Maine Maple Sunday Weekend, syrup producers are reporting regular or higher than regular volumes of tree sap, regardless of the nice and cozy winter climate that would have shortened the season.

“They’re about on par with what they’re usually at,” mentioned Lyle Merrifield, president of the Maine Maple Producers Affiliation, which runs the annual occasion.

Maine Maple Sunday Weekend kicks off at some sugar shacks Saturday. The occasion promotes the sale of maple syrup and associated merchandise from Maine sugar shacks, typically run by small household operations or industrial farms statewide.

Karen Giles, a 4-H professor on the College of Maine Cooperative Extension in Somerset County, mentioned milder climate can promote an early begin to the sap season. 

“The sap begins operating as soon as the temperatures attain about 40 levels,” she mentioned.

The phenomenon, Giles mentioned, shouldn’t be not like bushes budding early throughout a January thaw. The hotter climate makes the tree’s sap move, which inspires the buds. 

There have been tree tappers, she mentioned, who collected sap a lot sooner than the customary mid-February begin, with some beginning in January, “which is ridiculously early.”

“Sap’s flowing fairly good within the southern elements of the state, and within the northern elements it’s simply getting going,” he mentioned.

Maine sugar shacks produce greater than 575,000 gallons of syrup throughout a traditional season, in accordance with the affiliation. That generates greater than $55.6 million and helps greater than 833 full-time and part-time jobs.

There are about 230 producers within the affiliation, together with Alderwood Farms in Limerick. Co-owner Aaron Carroll mentioned he can be open to the general public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. 

Regardless of the hotter climate, he didn’t begin tapping till late February, however volumes have been good.

“It’s been a fairly good yr,” he mentioned. “We’ve made some fairly good syrup.”

Giles Household Farm in Alfred can be open on Sunday for the occasion, in accordance with co-owner Frank Boucher. He mentioned the farm began tapping the week of Feb. 17, a couple of week sooner than traditional. 

Boucher mentioned he was involved that milder climate would possibly result in the farm’s bushes budding early, which would cut back the quantity of sap they produce.

“We fearful that we have been going to start out early, with no snow on the bottom and no frost, that it will be a brief season,” he mentioned.

Fortunately, he mentioned, the farm’s bushes are south-facing, in order that they obtained much less solar. That meant the bushes stayed colder, which helped them produce extra sap than he anticipated, not much less.

“Really, we’re having, could possibly be a file yr,” he mentioned.

Merrifield mentioned the one climate problem can be a light spring storm anticipated to strike over the weekend, however general he doesn’t suppose it’ll scare guests away.

“I feel we’ll have a fairly good turnout throughout the state,” he mentioned.