Some maple producers tapping early - Lewiston Sun Journal

REGION — Thousands of taps have been installed and some maple sap collected already thanks to local weather conditions.

Some maple syrup producers are tapping their trees and getting lines ready for maple syrup season. It is a bit earlier than usual this year. Franklin Journal file photo

In order for the sap to run, temperatures must be above freezing during the day and drop below freezing at night.

Miguel Ibarguen, owner of the maple supply business CDL Maine in Wilton, said he has heard that more and more producers are already preparing for this year’s run. He knows of one large producer with just under 10,000 taps and some that have several hundred taps that are getting a jump on the season.

“Some are close to being done tapping. Some have collected sap already although no syrup has been produced yet,” he said Monday, Jan. 27.

Ibarguen said smaller producers may wait anyway to tap.

“They don’t want to be making syrup for months,” he said.

Monday Irene Couture of Maple Valley Farm, Inc. in Jay said her husband Tony and daughter Lindsay Bassett have installed 500 taps and have 2,200 more to go.

“We’re not ready to collect yet. We’ve had this weather before. It’s not unusual,” she said.

Donna Tracy of Maple Hill Farm in Farmington said work is being done in the sugar bush to go over the lines and get the taps on the drop lines.

“About the second week of February is when they usually start. It’s supposed to turn off cold again midweek. This weather is crazy,” she said.

On Tuesday Russell Black of Black Acres Farm in Wilton said sap ran a bit yesterday.

“It’s normally here and there in January and February. I’m a ways to getting my trees tapped,” he said.

Rodney Hall of Hall Farms Maple Products in East Dixfield said everything would be tapped by noon Tuesday if everything went well.

“This is earlier than some years. The conditions are good. I collected some sap yesterday, not much yet,” he said. “There is no snow this year, the conditions were right. I tried to get a jump on it.”

Weather predictions for the next several days have day-time temperatures in the mid-30s with mid-20s overnight. Producers who have tapped trees might get that early run this year.

With warmer weather in the forecast, it might not be long before maple syrup producers are boiling down sap. Pictured is the evaporator at True Mountain Maple in Industry during a previous Maine Maple Sunday. Franklin Journal file photo

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