Maple Syrup and Sugaring in Western Massachusetts

Places to watch sugaring and buy maple syrup in Western Massachusetts are highlighted here in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Maple syrup goes 24/7 in Vermont

"In Vermont, where mountains are green and the cheddar is sharp, maple syrup isn't just about slathering on pancakes anymore.

"That's the view, anyway, of Steve Wheeler, who with his wife and an MBA degree taps 5,700 maple trees in northern Vermont, where syrup season is in its final stretch.

"Demand for syrup is increasing, and one Wheeler theory for the rise is the proliferation of TV cooking shows, which have inspired consumers to be more adventurous."

Read the rest of the article by the Boston Globe's Chris Reidy here.

Maple syrup gives one sweet lesson

By RON DEVLIN
The Associated Press

"KUTZTOWN, Pa. - The sweet odor of maple syrup wafts through Celeste A. Ball's room at Kutztown High School.

"Ball doesn't teach a cooking class, and there are no pancakes on the griddle.

"She's the school's agricultural science teacher, and the aroma is just an added pleasure in a lesson on the fine art of sugarbushing. That's country lingo for tapping maple trees and turning the sap into that tasty topping that ingratiates a stack of hot cakes."

Read the whole story here.

Global Warming Comes to the Breakfast Table

"After the warmest January on record, maple syrup producers in Ohio were surprised to have recently discovered premature maple tree buds. Budding of maples at this early date is unprecedented and means that, for the first time in living memory, there will be little or no maple syrup from the trees of Northeastern Ohio this year."

So says Laurie David (pictured) in The Huffington Post.

Maple syrup producers call for end to Quebec's quota system

Rolland Urbain (right), second vice-president of the Quebec maple syrup marketing board, inspects the quality of this year's sap run on his Ste. Julienne maple farm, which is in the peak of the sugaring off. Photograph by : Montreal Gazette/Marie-France Coallier

"Hundreds of the 7,300 maple-farm operators represented by the province's syrup marketing board are challenging a quota system introduced to manage the harvest that was worth a record $180 million last year," writes Mike King, CanWest News Service, in the Montreal Gazette, today.

Read more about the dispute here

Maple syrup harvest down, again, in Ohio

The news isn't any better in Ohio. According to John Horton, a reporter for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland:

"The state's "sweet season" started late and ended early, leading to another off year for Ohio maple syrup producers.

"Yields fell below expectations at many local sugaring operations, with some reporting only half a crop, according to those in the maple industry. Some forecast statewide harvest figures to come in as low as 60,000 gallons, about 20 percent below the 15-year average.

"Lately, though, so-so seems normal: It has been six years since the last good sugar high, according to agriculture reports."

Read more here.

New Hampshire's first rite of spring

"March is maple sugaring time in New Hampshire. This uniquely North American natural phenomenon Nature is not restricted to the calendar like school vacations, holidays or town meeting day, but is dictated solely by day-night weather changes. Cold nights in the 20's followed by warm days when the temperatures go up into the 40's, absent a chilling wind, are the requirements for the sap to run.

"Our sugaring season can begin in late February and run into early April and even stop in between. Although sugaring season does coincide with mud season, no one knows how long the season is going to be until after it's over."

Read more at the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Service website.