Maple farms seeing sweet results amid delayed sugaring season

Despite freezing temperatures earlier this year that delayed the start of sugaring season, maple syrup producers say trees are producing sap with higher percentages of sugar than last year, making for a potentially more productive syrup season.

Staff at the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) got a sneak peek at the sugarhouses of Blue Heron Farm in Charlemont, Mt. Massaemet Sugarhouse in Shelburne and Cranston’s Christmas Tree Farm in Ashfield on Tuesday, viewing their operations during the peak of the busy sugaring season.

“Our sugar this year has ranged from 2.1% to 2.5%, which is really, really nice,” said Bill Coli, who owns Blue Heron Farm with his wife Norma. “I think everyone’s getting a sweet year. It’s remarkable, and it’s happening all over the region.”

Bob Spencer, owner of Mt. Massaemet Sugarhouse, said he’s seeing his trees produce sap with an average 1.6% sugar content, which is better than last year, but still not quite as high as he would like to see.

Spencer said the sugar content varies from tree to tree and from year to year, and can be impacted by the genetics of the tree, soil nutrients, canopy coverage and weather.

“Mother Nature is just unpredictable,” Spencer said.

According to the Massachusetts Maple Association, sap from maple trees typically has a sugar content of 2%, although it can vary from 1% to 4%. Sap is then boiled down to reduce the water and concentrate the sugar, and the end result is a maple syrup that is about 33% water and 67% sugar. The lower the sugar content in the sap, the more sap is required when boiling it down into syrup.

Sap flows best when the days are warm and nights are cold. Some years, the weather allows sugaring season to begin in January; this year, maple sugarers weren’t able to start until as late as early March, but they are now on track to meet their goals.

“Yesterday, we were up to about 570 gallons. We hope to make between 1,200 and 1,500 gallons on a normal year, but in sugaring, nothing’s normal,” Spencer said. “We got off to a slow start. … We didn’t boil until March 7 this year.”

At the 130-acre Blue Heron Farm, the Colis put 750 new taps in this year, bringing them up to 2,500 taps. They have made 2.5 drums of syrup, each holding about 40 gallons, so far this season. Last year, they made 1,200 gallons of syrup, which they sold at grocery stores across Massachusetts.

“We’re producing it, we’re packing it, we’re putting on the labels, and putting it in cartons and loading it into the van,” Norma Coli said. “And once a week, sometimes twice a week, we hit the road and we do seven or eight supermarkets at a time.”

Bill Coli said sugaring season involves long days and waking up in the middle of the night to check that the sap barrels haven’t overflowed. On Monday, for example, he and Norma were working in the sugarhouse from approximately 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“March can be a real kick in the … shins,” he said.

Bill Coli said the work has been made easier by technological advancements, such as their new evaporator, which they bought last year with help from an MDAR grant. The evaporator is more efficient, requiring less wood to keep the sap boiling and less labor, as it is something he and Norma can run on their own without additional part-time help.

Spencer, too, said he got his evaporator with the help of an MDAR grant and that the grants make the equipment purchases possible. His current evaporator can make 40 gallons of syrup per hour and produce 200 gallons with just one cord of wood. With previous evaporators, he could only get 35 gallons per cord burned.

“I built the sugarhouse in 1981. We’ve had lots of different types of evaporators in here, but thanks to an MDAR grant, we were able to get this six or seven years ago,” Spencer said. “The equipment is just so much more efficient.”

“The maple industry keeps the world economy going,” Spencer joked. “The capital expenditures are just huge.”

For example, he said his evaporator cost $50,000. The sugarhouse has made other investments over the years as technology and practices have changed, including the introduction of reverse osmosis machines to reduce the water content in the sap before it goes to the evaporators and tubing. Spencer said this does less damage to the trees than the previous bucket methods, as the holes required are much smaller.

Seth Cranston owns and operates Cranston’s Christmas Tree Farm in Ashfield with his brother, Jonathan Cranston, having taken over from their parents eight years ago. He said the farm previously used buckets, pipes and gravity, but a vacuum system that was purchased with a grant pumps the sap where it needs to go, and they have been able to increase the yield from roughly 120 or 180 gallons to 600 gallons of syrup.

“The vacuum has really made a difference,” Seth Cranston said.

Seth added that, like other maple syrup producers, Cranston’s did not see much productivity in sap flows earlier in the year. In February, they only produced about 5 gallons of syrup. Now, about halfway through March, they have reached 350 gallons.

“In the last couple of days, the sap has run quite well for us,” Jonathan Cranston said.

If the weather cooperates, the Cranstons hope the sugaring season will continue until the first week of April. After the ground thaws, they will switch their focus to planting and caring for Christmas trees, which serve as the farm’s main crop.

“The maple is nice because after a cold winter, it’s a sign of spring,” Jonathan Cranston said. “It’s a sign of better things to come.”