Warm weather ends syrup season early
Posted Mar 21, 2012 03:00:00 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The warm weather may be good for gardening and backyard barbeques, but it hasn’t been good for maple producers in the region.
Local maple producer Fred Martin says the warmth has meant an early end to the syrup season. “We started out with a little bit of trepidation because of the winter that we’ve had…It’s been unseasonably mild and yet, here we are…we’re washing up our tubing already.”
Martin says the weather really hasn’t affected the taste but it has made for slightly darker syrup because the warmth makes the sap deteriorate quicker.
Not to worry though, Martin says there will be plenty of syrup for the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival on March 31st. “We ended up with anywhere from half a crop to 3/4 or 80% of a normal crop this year. So, I think most producers are in decent shape for the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival.”
