An extended freeze-thaw cycle helped maple-sugar producers in Massachusetts haul in a record crop this year, aided by more aggressive tree-tapping — and some luck.
The 77,000 gallons of syrup produced in the state was 2.5 percent more than in 2015, according to the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association in Plainfield.
The harvest figures come from a June 10 report by the National Agricultural Statistics Survey.
Producers who racked up the best numbers were those who tapped in early February, before the traditional March 1 start, and stayed with the sap run despite temperature fluctuations, said Winton Pitcoff, the nonprofit association’s coordinator.
“People were still making good syrup into late March,” he said.
The season favored producers who, fearing an early season would mean a short one, got out into relatively snow-free woods to set taps. Producers who waited, Pitcoff said Tuesday, “missed a lot of the season.”
Use of more modern equipment may have also bumped up the yield.
Though temperatures were moderate in February, they fell below freezing often enough that month and in March to slow the season-ending growth of maple buds.
The national survey found that state sugarmakers added 5,000 taps. Pitcoff said he knows of producers who expanded their operations this year, but declined to name them.
The association estimates there are 250 sugarmakers in Massachusetts, many of them small operations and 80 percent of them in the four western counties. The state ranks eighth on the list of U.S. producers. Canada is the dominant producer, cranking out 85 percent of the syrup consumed around the world, according to Pitcoff.
Massachusetts is a net importer of syrup, he said, but small producers in the region continue to connect with local customers. Pitcoff said sales of locally produced syrup help keep Valley farms operating.
He said he’s noticed more young people at the association’s annual meetings. “It’s an addictive thing,” Pitcoff said of sugaring. What begins as a hobby grows – and suddenly people are buying evaporators and scaling up.
For young farmers, sugaring can fill an otherwise slack season. “It’s a great time of year for someone who has a crop farm or livestock,” he said. “It doesn’t compete for your time.”