Warm Weather, Small Staffs Impact Maple Sugar Shacks


If there is anything one can always say about the sugaring season, it’s that it’s never the same. Ideally, the days should get progressively warmer beginning in mid-February, and buckets hanging on maple trees will slowly fill with clear maple sap.

Right about now, producers would be found in their warm sugarhouses, feeding woodstoves, breathing sugary steam and checking for just the right syrup consistency.

Instead, temperatures are in the single digits, trees have been left temporarily untapped and the small amount of sap collected has been bottled. "Anxious," is how one described the situation.

Some local producers won’t be producing at all this year. At the Great Mountain Forest in Norfolk, one of the biggest operations in the Northwest Corner, short staffing has forced them to close down operations.

At Camp Sloane in Salisbury, another active sugar house, Paul "Bear" Bryant told The Journal via e-mail his staff is not tapping this year.

"We are giving the fungus-ridden maples a year off," the camp director said. "You may have noticed there were much fewer red leaves this fall. That was due to a maple fungus. It doesn’t effect the syrup, per se, but it does put a strain on the trees.

"In addition, we are a little light on staff this spring, so setting up the sugar bush with spiles and buckets, gathering the sap, and engaging in the very time-consuming task of evaporating the sap into syrup is just not in the cards for 2007."

At Laurelbrook Farm in East Canaan, Bob Jacquier said he and his staff and family are also taking the year off. In their case, it’s a question of priorities. A lot of trees were down, the fungus hit a portion, sections of their miles of sap lines need repair. Jacquier has lost sleep over the decision, but he and his family have decided to focus instead on milk price hearings and other ways to make up for the lack of profits now inherent in dairying.

"The last time we missed a year was in 1969, when we were busy building a new barn," Jacquier said. "It wasn’t an easy decision and I don’t know when we’ll start again, but we’ve got a bunch of kids here that could learn."

Smaller syrup makers are taking a wait-and-see approach to the season.

"We’ll know what kind of season it’s going to be when it’s over," said Cornwall’s laconic farmer and first selectman, Gordon Ridgway.

"Light and sweet" was how he described the syrup produced so far at Ridgway Farm on Town Street.

"We finished boiling off the small amount of sap we had yesterday."

At Hautboy Hill Farm in Cornwall, Buddy and Irene Hurlburt tap about 760 trees and send their sap to Brook View Sugarhouse in Morris, where Harold Cables boils it and makes enough for both to sell.

"We are hoping for a late season," Buddy Hurlburt said. "Traditionally, we start around Valentine’s Day, but we didn’t get much of anything until last Saturday, and that was a real short run."

He compared this year with last, when there were essentially two distinct runs.

"Last year, it broke open in the middle of March and we ended up with 260 gallons of syrup. The year before we only had 86."

Up on Cherry Hill, Phil Hart is good at making predictions based on months of observation.

"We had good foliage last summer and no drought. The assumption is the moisture will mean adequate sugar to supply a good sap run," Hart said.

As for the current weather, "It could be one of those years when we are boiling in April."

What about global warming? It may not seem a factor at the moment, but Hart agrees with scientific news that shows today’s syrup makers are tapping a full month earlier than their ancestors.

"Our records definitely show that. The question is, though, is global warming man-made or cyclical? All I know is, in my lifetime, we have had all kinds of years, but we have never not made syrup."

Cornwall’s annual sugarhouse tour was canceled this year. Ridgway said it is simply because it’s a lot of work for producers. They will try doing it every other year instead.

"It worked out just as well. No one would have come out in the cold anyway," he said.

For those hankering for a tour, Sharon Audubon’s Maple Fest is scheduled for March 17, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Forty-minute tours will include demonstrations of early Colonial sugaring methods, sap collection and boiling.

Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. Syrup will be available to purchase. For more information call 860-364-0520.

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