Prepping for ‘spring’s awakening’: Massachusetts Maple Month kicks off at Winston’s Sugar House

BUCKLAND — Massachusetts Maple Month is such a sweet time that the state Department of Agricultural Resources and the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association decided to kick it off a little early.

MDAR Commissioner Ashley Randle joined state and local officials and representatives of the maple association at Winston’s Sugar House on Friday morning for a ceremonial tree tapping, the reading of a proclamation from Gov. Maura Healey and a tour of the sugaring operation before March begins.

“We call it ‘spring’s awakening,’ so it’s a great opportunity for our MDAR team to come out and connect with the producers,” Randle said after using a 5-16ths bit brace to drill a hole into a maple tree in front of the roughly 50 attendees, who were mostly maple producers.

Healey’s proclamation states that Massachusetts is home to at least 300 maple producers, making it one of the nation’s top maple syrup-producing states. Sugarers produce at least 60,000 gallons of syrup — worth $5 million — each year and employ at least 1,000 workers, contributing $15 million to the state’s economy. Maple producers in the state also maintain and preserve no less than 15,000 acres.

Hunter Sessions, who started Winston’s Sugar House in 2014, hung a metal Massachusetts Maple Producers Association bucket on a tap after Randle drilled the hole. Massachusetts Maple Producers Association President Kim Trust, who is also co-owner of Justamere Tree Farm in Worthington, made opening remarks and thanked Sessions for hosting the event.

“First drip!” Sessions interjected as the first drop of sap fell into the bucket, to a round of applause.

Julie Arrison-Bishop, the state Office of Travel & Tourism’s marketing director who grew up in Chicopee, expressed her fondness for western Massachusetts and applauded the work of the maple producers.

“I just want to say ‘thank you, all’ to all of our farmers and maple producers and folks out here who provide so many wonderful opportunities for visitors and tourists coming to Massachusetts,” Arrison-Bishop said. “Agrotourism is a major, major driver of getting folks here to Massachusetts.”

Kristen Elechko, the western Massachusetts director for Healey’s office, said the kickoff event is her favorite of the entire year, and state Sen. Paul Mark praised the operation.

Randle, who was born and raised on her family’s fifth-generation dairy farm in South Deerfield, said most of the state’s 300 maple producers live in western Massachusetts.

“It’s really a vibrant part of the economy out here, and … we’re just hoping for a good season for the producers, because it really is, for the next month, really the critical time when they can bring in the sap and make their sweet product,” she said.

Sessions said he found his passion for sugaring while assisting his second cousin, Howard Boyden, of Boyden Brothers Maple in Conway.

“I went over there to help them a little bit and kind of fell in love with it, and convinced my father to help me do it,” he said.

He said he now has 1,750 taps and hopes for 4,000 next year, pending some leases and right-of-way agreements. He also sits on the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association’s board of directors.

Sessions mentioned he appreciated being asked to host Friday’s kickoff event.

“It was nice. It was a little hectic,” he said. “I mean, I was out until midnight last night, getting ready for stuff. I think we did pretty good.”

March 7 and 8 is Maple Weekend in Massachusetts. To find out which sugarhouses are open that weekend, visit massmaple.org/maple-weekend-map.