After a later start, this year’s maple syrup season is shaping up well
It was a later start than some years, but the maple syrup season is shaping up to be a good one, especially where quality is concerned.
Depending on where they’re at in Ontario, producers are at different phases of collecting sap at this point, says John Williams, executive director of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers’ Association (OMSPA), who runs an operation near Midland.
“The outlook for this season is good. We’ve had a nice, cold winter, for the most part. And we’ve had some warm weather. Importantly, we’ve had snow on the ground – even down your way has had a fair amount of snow and frost in the ground,” he said.
Where producers in the southwestern portions of the province may be well along in the collection process, those in his area just got underway in mid-March. Those to the north started even later.
“Here, we’ve had actually fairly good sugar content early on, which is nice, too. That means less collecting and less boiling to get the same amount of syrup and nice sugar content coming into the trees,” Williams explained.
Locally, Bloomingdale-area producer Kevin Snyder is enjoying both good yields and quality from some 3,600 taps at his Snyder Heritage Farms operation. By the end of last week, quantities had already surpassed all of last year’s season, which saw poor yields through much of the province.
“We are operating away here. Because last year was such a poor production year, we’ve actually passed last year’s production already, which is nice,” he said, noting the mix of cooler and warmer weather has worked out generally well.
“The cold weather looks favourable because it’ll reset the trees to making it feel like winter, and then we should get another good shot of sap after that.”
It was a similar story with fellow Waterloo
Wellington Maple Syrup Producers Association members Terry Hoover of Hoover’s Maple Syrup in Atwood, where things got rolling well in mid-March.
“We just nicely got rolling in the last week. We had three or four dribbles before – as one of the guys said, the sap wasn’t running, it was walking. To give you an idea, we get 200 gallons an hour on an average run. And we were getting 80 or 90 – it was like just enough to turn the pumps on, so to speak,” he explained, noting producers are completely dependent on the weather.
“It’s Mother Nature, and she never tells you ahead what she’s got up her sleeve.”