New technology to help boost production of a New England tradition is sweet news for maple syrup producers.
J.P. Welch, who owns Justamere Tree Farm in Worthington with his wife Marian, is among those who see a bright future for the crop. “Right now, I think it’s a really great time to be in the maple world, because technology has helped us (and) demand for maple is increasing,” he said on the day in mid-March when Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner John Lebeaux visited the Welches’ farm.
Justamere, which also sells Christmas trees, received a $40,000 state grant a decade ago to expand its sugar bush, increase the number of taps and pay for production improvements including an upgraded reverse osmosis system — which removes water from maple sap before it is boiled — and an energy-efficient evaporator. As a result, production has increased from between three and five gallons of syrup to 30 to 35 gallons for each hour of boiling, Welch said.
There are an estimated 250 sugar producers in the state, with about 70 in Hampshire and Franklin counties. While technology improves their efficiency, the method of turning sap into maple syrup remains largely unchanged. After the sap is collected, it goes through the reverse osmosis system to separate water from sugar molecules. That sap, with its higher sugar content, is then boiled in an evaporator so it thickens into syrup. Depending on the sugar content, it may take up to 40 gallons of sap to produce a gallon of syrup.
More efficient production is especially helpful for maple sugarers who are dependent on the right weather conditions. Ideal weather for sap production is a combination of nighttime temperatures in the 20s, and warming to the 40s during the day.
While March normally has the best weather for sugaring in Massachusetts, farmers must adapt to unusual conditions throughout the winter. North Hadley Sugar Shack owner Shelly Boisvert says that this year, “We actually made 200 gallons of syrup when it was mild in mid-January using sap we had tapped with a line.”
Syrup producers also must cope with the negative impact of severe weather. When a tornado touched down in Hampshire and Franklin counties on Feb. 25, it destroyed about one-third of the 1,600 taps used by Dana Goodfield at his maple sugaring operation in Conway, and damaged hundreds of trees on his 120 acres. A few weeks later, he estimated his losses at about $9,000 and said he no longer expected to reach his goal of 1,000 gallons this season. Last year, he produced about 600 gallons of syrup.
The yield is hard to predict from year to year. “Depends on Mother Nature,” Goodfield says. “My first boil was the 27th of January. And then I didn’t boil again until the 20th of February. Ask me in April – who knows?”
Continued advances in technology are improving the odds for maple sugarers. The Massachusetts Maple Producers Association, which is based in Plainfield, helps educate producers about the latest improvements. Howard Boyden, of Boyden Brothers Maple in Conway, and a member of the association’s board of directors, says, “We just try to bring everybody’s skill level up a little bit higher and everybody’s profit level up a little higher.”
This year, the Boydens replaced some of their 5/16-inch tubing, which takes sap downhill, with a 3/16-inch system that helped double production. “This was a great experiment for me and next year I’m going to be headed to the woods with lots of 3/16 tubing,” Boyden says. “The manufacturers just started producing it three years ago.”
Timothy Perkins, director of the Proctor Maple Research Center at the University of Vermont, said the technology has increased production for smaller operations that may have lacked mechanical pumps. “If you make the tubing smaller by running liquid downhill, it will generate its own vacuum,” according to Perkins.
And a new reverse osmosis machine tested at the research center removes more water from the sap, resulting in a higher sugar content in half the time it takes to heat into syrup. “For commercial maple producers, time is money and energy is money. it all comes down to how efficient you can be to make syrup, and this is just the next big step to save time,” Perkins says.
That will help keep the region’s maple industry on an upward trajectory. Last year, the 77,000 gallons of syrup produced in Massachusetts was 2.5 percent more than in 2015. And with consumers using it to sweeten everything from pancakes to vegetables, that market should continue to grow.