As cold weather clings to the region, maple producers are still waiting for their production season to kick into high gear.
Maple syrup season is a short-lived enterprise. The most ambitious might tap maple trees as early as January, but the typical high run of the season is from February to early April. Usually, local producers said, at this point in the season, they would have produced about 50 percent of their crop.
This year, as the state’s Maple Syrup weekend approaches, they’ve only produced about a tenth of their usual total.
“We’re pretty far behind,” Ben Fisk, owner of Ben’s Sugar Shack in Temple, said in an interview Friday. “But, it’s farming. You never know. We could get the right weather for the next 20 days and make more than we ever have before.”
The issue, Fisk said, is the weather. The sweet spot for making the maple sap run is small. Temperatures have to be a little under 30 degrees at night, and between 40-45 degrees during the day. When the temperature gets over 50 degrees, it’s too hot for the sap to run.
Chris Connolly, of Connolly Sugar House in Temple, said he’s been seeing similarly low production.
“It’s been on the cold side and we just haven’t had the right fluctuation of temperatures,” Connolly said.
Connolly said the family was only able to boil their first batch of sap this Saturday. Normally, he said, the first boil happens around Valentines Day.
The Connolly family taps between 1,000 and 1,200 trees each year, and produce about 75 to 100 gallons of syrup. So far this year, they’ve only been able to make 10. Their goal is to make enough to pay for their land taxes, Connolly said.
“Obviously, 10 gallons of syrup isn’t going to pay for our taxes,” Connolly said. “But there have been years where in one week we make most of the syrup for the year, and you don’t know what’s going to happen until the buds are coming out.”
Patrick Kenney, of Brookview Sugar House in Wilton, said he’s also missed out on the usual run of sap in February.
“It’s just low production,” Kenney said.
Kenney, who runs the sugar house as a hobby with his wife Sara Kenney and their two children, Colby and Riley, said his production rate is in line with other producers – about 10 percent of his total product, where he would normally expect to be at 50 percent.
Kenney said his family doesn’t rely on the income from the syrup in his day-to-day life, but his profits will decide whether their syrup operation expands next year or not.
Local sugar shacks rely on tourism for a lot of their business, often opening up to tours and demonstrations on the weekends in order to bring people in to buy their products.
March in New Hampshire is Maple Month, and this weekend, state-wide, sugar shacks will be opening their doors and offering special maple products and tours to bring in the crowds.
Connolly said the weekends so far this season have been inconsistent, and mainly weather dependent, not related to how the sap has been flowing.
“Maple Month is a big draw,” Connolly said. “Between us and [Ben’s Sugar Shack] down the road, we get a huge amount of tourists.”
For more information about the annual New Hampshire Maple Weekend, a full list of participating producers, and other activities, visit nhmapleproducers.com.
Chris-Mich 3 Farm, 285 Elm Avenue, Antrim, 588-2157
Connolly’s Sugar House, 140 Webster Highway, Temple, 924-5002
Fieldstone Farm Sugarhouse, 38 Fieldstone Lane, Rindge, 899-6009
Four Saps Sugar Shack, 10 Fredette Drive, Lyndeborough, 714-4503
Maple Row Sugaring, 439 Route 119, Rindge, 801-4690
Molly’s Maple Barn, 108 Red House Road, Francestown, 801-0731
Morning Star Maple, 1596 Main Street, Dublin, 563-9218
Mtn-Gold Maple Mill, 55 Cram Hill Road, Lyndeborough, 654-7260
Old Pound Road Sugar House, 37 Old Pound Road, Antrim, 588-3272
Somero Maple Farm, 21 Poor Farm Road, New Ipswich, 562-0822
The Maple Guys Sugar Shack, 311 Cram Hill Road, Lyndeborough, 654-2415
Babel’s Sugar Shack, 323 Hurricane Hill Road, Mason, 878-3929