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Will 2024 be a good maple syrup season in Massachusetts?

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Will 2024 be a good maple syrup season in Massachusetts?


Though March is officially considered Massachusetts Maple Month, many sugar makers have already kicked-off the 2024 season, tapping maple trees for syrup as early as mid-January with no clear end to the season in sight.

“It looks like it’s going to be a good year,” said Massachusetts Maple Producers Association coordinator Missy Leab, of Ioka Valley Farm in Hancock.

“And just because we started boiling in January does not mean we are going to end any sooner than any other typical year,” said Leab.

  • Read more: 10 interesting facts about maple syrup that you need to know

Leab said she usually taps from late January until late March or early April, though she knows of other sugar makers tapping trees as early as Jan. 13.

“Quite a few people across the state have been able to get taps out and caught that last FOS,” referring to the sweet, carbohydrate compound found in syrup, also known as fructooligosaccharides. ”It was a wonderful, generous run for most people.”

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MMPA Board of Director Richard Julian, of Deer Meadow Farm in Warren, said making syrup is “weather-dependent,” and sugar makers tap trees, boil sap and make syrup whenever they can.

The sugar shack at Deer Meadow Farm in Warren is where sap is boiled down into maple syrup. The farm is hosting a sugar shack tour on Maple Weekend, March 16-17, 2024.Courtesy of Deer Meadow Farm, Warren Ma

“For sap to run, it needs to be below freezing at night to build up pressure,” said Julian. “A sugar maker’s dream is 20 degrees at night and 45 degrees during the day.”

He said there is no way to be 100% sure of what the season will look like, but plans on at least six weeks of sugar making.

Julian said he starts tapping trees around Valentine’s Day and started boiling right on schedule this year, with his first boil on Feb. 11.

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  • Read more: Crumbl’s new menu this week doesn’t just have cookies, it has also has cake

“I made 82 gallons (of syrup) last year, and 85 the year before,” said Julian. “We always hope for a good season.”

It takes about 43 gallons of “raw” sap to boil down into 1 gallon of maple syrup, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

“In the old days, people would tap in March and April,” said Julian, adding that people are now tapping around February or earlier.

In an article published last year by the USDA, Jason Lilley, Assistant professor of sustainable agriculture and maple industry educator for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, said the earlier sugaring season may be related to climate change.

  • Read more: Breakfast sandwich at Rutland café selling out on weekends

He said if this phenomenon was happening in a single season, he would have considered it an abnormality.

“However, this has been a widely recognized trend among the maple industry over several seasons,” said Lilley.

And 2024 is no exception.

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High Hopes Farm Sugarhouse owner and sugar maker, Brian Rowe, of Worthington, said “times have changed,” and his sugarhouse is one that will extend its season this year, thanks to the early start.

“We started tapping about two and a half weeks ago,” said Rowe, who is on his 33rd year tapping trees in Massachusetts.

High Hopes Sugarhouse, at 113 Huntington Road in Worthington, will be open for the season and pancake breakfasts starting Saturday, Feb. 24, from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., and will end the season on April 7.

MMPA Board of Director Bruce Hopper, of Pure BS Maple Shack in Auburn, said he started right on schedule this season, though believes he could have started earlier.

“I know some people who have bottled and tapped already,” said Hopper. “In my experience, I’ve learned ‘don’t go too hog-wild too early’.”

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He said starting early can sometimes make the “liquid gold” crop more vulnerable to weather conditions such as wind or freezing temperatures – affecting the flow of the sap.

“When the wind is blowing, it’s too much,” he said.

University of New Hampshire professor of natural resources and environmental researcher Heidi Asbjornsen told the USDA, “in the Northeast, late winter and spring are the times of year that are experiencing the most dramatic climate change.”

And, “perhaps no surprise that tapping patterns are changing.”

As far as predicting how the crop yield will be this season, Hopper said “it’s a lot of just watching the weather. There isn’t any set day or time.”

Leab, who has nearly 30 years of sugar-making experience, said once the maples start producing buds, the syrup-making season is at its end.

“The flavor changes dramatically at that point also. So again, that’s Mother Nature’s control of when we start and when we finish,” said Leab.

With Massachusetts Maple Month in March, sugar makers are gearing up for a state-wide maple celebration known as Maple Weekend.

On Saturday, March 16, and Sunday, March 17, sugar makers will participate in maple festivities with tours of their sugarhouses, showcasing their maple goods and offering hot samples of syrup.

Leab and the Ioka Valley Farm team at 3475 Hancock Road in Hancock, will celebrate by serving pancakes, waffles and French toast, offering sugarhouse tours and – of course – maple syrup tasting.

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  • Read more: Pure BS Maple Shack taps into cannabis industry with infused syrup by Cultivate

“It’s a great time of year,” said Leab. “It’s a wonderful transition from the late winter through the early spring. I can’t think of any other way to celebrate mud season except for making maple syrup.”

Julian said Deer Meadow Farm, located at 60 Reed St. in Warren, will celebrate with a tour of the sugarhouse, tour(s) of the woods to showcase sugar bushes, and offer warm maple syrup samples.

Deer Meadow Farm will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 16, and 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 17.

High Hopes Sugarhouse of Worthington will offer the usual, seasonal all-you-can-eat pancake and breakfast buffet on Maple Weekend, in addition to a tour of the sugar shack and Q&A sessions.

“Everything is made in the same building,” said Rowe, “we can show the production on how it’s made.”



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How did Damon, Affleck, Fallon handle Cape Cod town names trying to recite all 351 in MA?

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How did Damon, Affleck, Fallon handle Cape Cod town names trying to recite all 351 in MA?


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Can Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Jimmy Fallon pronounce every city and town in Massachusetts correctly, including those on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard?

In a promotion for Damon and Affleck’s upcoming thriller film, “The Rip,” the trio hammered through every single one of the state’s 351 municipalities on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” on Tuesday, Jan. 13 – in thick Boston accents.

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Having grown up in Massachusetts, the two actors are no strangers to Boston accents – famously putting them to use in “Good Will Hunting.” And while their newest movie is set in Miami, not Boston, the actors jumped at the chance to slip into their New England personas on “The Tonight Show.”

Wearing their most “Boston” outfits – Red Sox merch and cold-weather gear – Damon, Affleck, and Fallon took turns reciting the names of each Massachusetts town in alphabetical order as soft music played in the background.

“Abington, Acton, Acushnet, Adams, Agawam,” Damon started, with a deadpan expression on his face.

“Alford, Amesbury, Amherst, Andover, Aquinnah,” Affleck continued, with a gruff Boston accent.

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“Arlington, Ashburnham, Ashby, Ashfield, Ashland,” Fallon went on, trying his hand at an accent as well.

And yes, the segment continued like this for about five minutes.

Were there any slip-ups on the Massachusetts town names?

For the most part, the three flew through the Massachusetts town names, even though it’s easy for tongues to get twisted when reciting them all at top speed.

Fallon stumbled briefly over Winchendon, repeating it a few times before he sounded confident. Damon pronounced “Uxbridge” as “Oxbridge.”

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Cape and Islands towns seemed to get a fair shake. Fallon made a point to enunciate each “r” in the town of Truro. Chatham and Eastham, spelled similarly, but pronounced differently, were each said correctly. Yarmouth got a little more airtime as the final town on the list, when Affleck threw up his hands in celebration while drawing out his Boston-accented “Yaaaah,” then bowed.

Affleck, a Massachusetts town-name natural, couldn’t resist a cheeky comment when he reached the home of the New England Patriots.

“Foxboro for your mother,” he quipped.

Another notable moment was when Affleck seemed to learn mid-recitation that Peru is, in fact, the name of a town in Massachusetts.

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You can find a list of all 351 Massachusetts towns and cities here – if you’re feeling up to the challenge of reciting them all.

Where, when to watch the new Matt Damon and Ben Affleck movie

You can watch “The Rip” on Netflix on Friday, Jan. 16.

Damon and Affleck are featured in the film alongside actors Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Kyle Chandler, Scott Adkins, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sasha Calle, Nestor Carbonell, and Lina Esco, according to Netflix. The movie is directed by Joe Carnahan, whose other works include “Narc,” “The A-Team,” and “Copshop.” Damon and Affleck are also producers of the film.

Here’s the official movie synopsis for “The Rip,” provided by Netflix:

“Upon discovering millions in cash in a derelict stash house, trust among a team of Miami cops begins to fray. As outside forces learn about the size of the seizure, everything is called into question — including who they can rely on.”

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At Massachusetts stores, the demise of the penny is adding up to one big headache – The Boston Globe

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At Massachusetts stores, the demise of the penny is adding up to one big headache – The Boston Globe


With little government guidance on how to lawfully undertake the transition, and loath to give up even a few cents by rounding transactions down to the nearest nickel, Maloney is instead trying to kick the coin jar down the road.

“We’re sort of hoarding,” said Maloney, who has run Julio’s since 2000, “so that we don’t have to deal with this problem.”

It’s a problem playing out in cash registers across Massachusetts and the country as the realities of a penniless future begin to present themselves.

Julio’s Liquors in Westborough is offering to convert customers’ pennies into paper cash.Lane Turner/Globe Staff

When Canada phased out its one-cent coin a little more than a decade ago, it offered retailers and consumers a clear path forward, suggesting that cash transactions be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel — $1.61 and $1.62 become $1.60, while $1.63 and $1.64 become $1.65 — with sales tax applied before rounding. In Massachusetts, retailers say they have been given little such direction from the federal or state government, bringing about a patchwork of solutions as stores try to navigate the changing tides of change on their own.

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“I didn’t really think it was going to cause much of an issue, but then it started causing an issue,” said Sara-Ann Turner, a cashier at Warren Hardware in the South End. The shop has begun rounding transactions to the nearest five-cent increment when customers don’t have exact change, which has left some shoppers feeling nickel-and-dimed when the sum comes down in the store’s favor.

The penny remains legal tender, with billions of the coin still in circulation — many likely sitting in jacket pockets, under couch cushions, and between sidewalk cracks. But the lack of fresh ones shipping out of the US Mint means that cash transactions will soon have to sidestep the one-cent coin. And even in an increasingly cashless economy, that’s no simple endeavor.

In a recent survey conducted by the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, 65 percent of members said they planned to take Canada’s recommended approach and round cash transactions up or down to the nearest nickel. The other 35 percent said they would always round down in the customer’s favor, a policy Dunkin’ has recommended for its franchisees. (The survey did not give respondents the option to say they would always round up.)

As pennies grow fewer, Dunkin’ has advised its franchisees to round up its change to the nearest five-cent increment in cash transactions where the customer doesn’t have exact change.Dunkin’

But any rounding policy stores choose risks running afoul of a tangle of bureaucratic regulations, said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. Consider, for instance, a Massachusetts law that prohibits surcharges on customers who use credit cards over cash, or the federal statute that mandates food stamp customers be charged the same as those using cash.

“The sellers just need some guidance, number one, and number two, some protection,” Hurst said.

In a letter in early December, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and California Representative Maxine Waters sought answers from the heads of the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the US Mint, writing that the absence of guidance could “risk worsening inconsistencies in customer transactions, uncertainty in pricing approaches, legal compliance, tax calculations, and more.”

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Late last month, the Treasury Department published a frequently-asked-questions webpage that pointed to the technique of rounding to the nearest nickel but ultimately passed the buck to states, which it said “will approach this issue differently based on unique considerations.”

Both chambers of Congress have introduced bipartisan federal legislation, called the Common Cents Act, that would codify for US businesses the same rounding practices as Canada recommended, but progress for the bills appears to have stalled.

A die for a penny press, at the US Mint in Philadelphia.Matt Slocum/Associated Press

And while states including Georgia and Utah have come out with basic guidelines for retailers — leaving rounding decisions up to individual merchants but clarifying that sales tax should be applied before rounding — Massachusetts has yet to do the same.

In a statement, a Massachusetts Department of Revenue spokesperson said the office is “considering what if any guidance is needed.”

The Massachusetts attorney general’s office said any legal changes to retailers’ practices would have to come from lawmakers.

“It’s more involved than any of us thought it would be on the first glance,” said state Representative Tackey Chan, who is looking into the penny issue.

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Merchants may soon get some temporary relief, thanks to the Federal Reserve, which distributes coins to banks. This week, all seven of the Federal Reserve bank distribution sites in the Boston district will once again accept deposits of pennies from banks, a move the Fed said it made “to better support the circulation of pennies for commercial activity.” This may eventually allow banks to order the coins again, which could then allow supply to trickle down to retailers.

Amid all the unknowns, Julio’s isn’t the only one trying to put off the inevitable. In November, the supermarkets Price Chopper and Market 32 held a promotion in which customers could bring in pennies and receive double their value in a gift card to the grocers. The event amassed roughly 20 million pennies, or $200,000, according to director of customer service Michele McKeever — about $11,900 of which came from the chains’ 14 Massachusetts stores.

In November, Price Chopper and Market 32 held a promotion offering customers a deal on their pennies.Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The Boston Globe

“We were hoping that we could buy some time and get legislation passed to give us clear direction,” McKeever said.

For stores that have already begun their own rounding policies, there can be growing pains as they explain the new system to clientele. Turner, the Warren Hardware cashier, said she dealt with one customer who grew particularly upset at being shortchanged.

“‘I work hard for these two pennies,’” Turner recalled the customer saying.

Andrea Pendergast, co-owner of the Cape Cod Package Store Fine Wine & Spirits in Centerville, is also worried about inadvertently driving away business.

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“We end all of our pricing with nine,” she said, a common consumer psychology trick known as charm pricing. Rounding up to the next dollar, she knows, would “look, psychologically, from a customer standpoint, like maybe the prices are going up.”

While some retailers are concerned about the effects of rounding policies on their profits, research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond last year estimated that rounding to the nearest nickel would end up costing shoppers, not retailers, about $6 million annually. This was because, the researchers found, prices tended to end on digits that would round up.

Nevertheless, Maloney, the Julio’s Liquors owner, worries about the potential hit to his bottom line once his penny-pinching days run out. Choosing to always round down could cost him the equivalent of a part-time employee’s pay.

“I know everybody’s going to say, ‘It’s just pennies,’” he said. “I go, ‘Yes, but pennies add up.’”

Rolls of pennies stacked inside the store safe at Julio’s Liquors in Westborough earlier this month.Lane Turner/Globe Staff

Dana Gerber can be reached at dana.gerber@globe.com. Follow her @danagerber6.





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Massachusetts native earns Patriots collaboration through social media design campaign

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Massachusetts native earns Patriots collaboration through social media design campaign


Building a brand, sharing her funky graphic designs and garnering the attention of major brands and professional sports teams, Kate Weinberg has proven the power of social media, amassing more than 500,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram.

Her latest campaign, designing fresh merchandise for the NFL, has now resulted in a massive collaboration with the Patriots.

“The whole team has been amazing,” Weinberg told NBC 10 News. “They’ve trusted in my creative vision the whole way through.”

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NBC 10’s Erin Coogan reports that a Massachusetts native caught the eye of the Patriots with her eye-catching designs.

The collaboration is the result of months of planning, designing, and editing.

“It was hard to pull together so quickly,” she continued. “From coming up with the design and getting the production to happen and making sure they were approved by the league, there’s so much I’ve been learning.”

Weinberg says as a Massachusetts native and generational Pats fan, inspiration came naturally — the designs feature lobsters, sailboats, and everything uniquely New England.

“I try to make every design unique and tell a story with it … the story of the team,” Weinberg said.

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They were placed on display just in time for the Patriots’ 2026 playoff debut.

“They went on display, Friday, right before the big game. Sunday was the big sales day, I think they sold out at 2 p.m.,” Weinberg said.

She said come this Sunday, she’ll be proudly repping her merch, while rooting for the Pats as they take on the Texans at 3 p.m.



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