‘Cautiously optimistic’: Maple syrup producers expect a good season this year

Maple syrup producers in New Hampshire are expecting a season that could potentially outperform

Sunnyside Maples, based in Loudon, boiled their first batch of maple syrup on Valentine’s Day — a whole week earlier than anticipated.

production in recent years.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the state produced 167,000 gallons of syrup in 2022 — a 31% uptick from the previous year.

But Andrew Chisholm, the president of the New Hampshire Maple Producers’ Association, said with production starting earlier due to an “unusually warm winter,” this season could beat out last year’s.

“I’m cautiously optimistic about a good season,” he said.

Mike Moore, who runs Sunnyside Maples out of Loudon, said he had his first batch of syrup to boil on Valentine’s Day, when he usually expects the season to start about a week later.

Moore said he’s already produced 25 to 30% of his crop.

“And some producers were able to jump on it a week quicker than we were, so some people made syrup before I was even ready,” Moore said.

Maple season typically starts in February and ends in April, but warmer temperatures allowed some producers to begin tapping trees in early January — a whole month earlier than what’s normally expected.

“It’s the earliest start in years,” said Chisholm, who’s collected maple syrup for more than 40 years. “We’re having spring-like temperatures during the day, and colder temperatures at night,” he said, which is ideal for maple production.

As our climate changes, winter is the fastest warming season in the region. According to New Hampshire’s state climatologist, it’s warming three times faster than summer.

Moore said he’s gearing up for Maple Weekend, an annual mid-March event in the state for which sugarhouses open their shops to visitors.

“We’ll be doing our normal thing, and…we don’t know if we’ll have sap, but we’ll be boiling something, whether it’s water or not,” he said.

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NH’s Most Interesting Mapler Talks Maple Weekend on March 18 & 19

You know how maple syrup just arrives at the grocery store, and then winds up on your table? Of course you don’t, (flap)Jack – because that’s not at all how it happens.

It’s actually an arduous, delicate process, all so you can smack your lips and enjoy some waffles, pancakes, or French toast. Or pasta – an underrated combo cultivated by Buddy the Elf.

Meet Andrew Chisholm – airline pilot by day, mapler by other day. Walter White if he had eschewed the ills of crystals and embraced the sweetness of maple.

Do his contemporaries know of this dual life?

“A few of them do,” said Chisholm. “I don’t cross the streams too often. Some of the maple producers know that I’m a pilot, but not many, and some pilots know that I’m a maple producer.”

The FAA need not worry. Chisholm, who is also President of the NH Maple Producers Association, resists the urge to make mid-air detours to check on the miles of tubes set up in the woods near his farm in Kingston to reap the benefits of cold nights and warmer days – the magic recipe for producing syrup.

It’s a big time for producers such as Chisolm Farm in Hamptstead, as it’s Maple Month in the state of New Hampshire. “This is like our Super Bowl right here this month,” says Chisolm. “We prepare all year for this month.”

Not just for sentimental reasons, but because March is when maplers get to see what kind of haul they’re dealing with (especially tricky, given the bizarre weather we’ve seen this winter).

“This is when that sap flows through those trees, and trees are trying to wake up for spring,” says Captain Maple himself. “What makes that happens is the sap going up through the tree in these cold nights and warm days.”

Read More: NH’s Most Interesting Mapler Talks Maple Weekend on March 18 & 19 | https://shark1053.com/new-hampshires-most-interesting-mapler-discusses-maple-weekend-on-march-18-19/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

Tapping Maple in Tamworth with Sununu and Madison Elementary School Children

By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org

TAMWORTH – Ahead of the upcoming NH Maple Weekend, March 18 and 19, when almost 200 sugarhouses in the state are open to the public, Gov. Chris Sununu tapped a century-old maple on the grounds of the Remick Farm Museum with students from the Madison Elementary School Monday.

Third grader Ari Gray stepped up to help the governor place the spile – or tap – into the stately maple in a field with cows overlooking the scene and geese flying overhead, while his parents and others from the school watched along with leaders of state government.

It took only a few seconds for all three holes to begin to drip sap, which the governor tasted by dipping his hand.

New Hampshire Maple Producers Association, Inc. is celebrating 80 years as a non-profit trade association this year and the tapping so far has been sweet in parts of the state that have seen the sap run.

Considered one of the first signs of spring, the season can last from 15 to 35 days but is largely concentrated in the month of March.

Each year, the organization enlists the help of the governor to tap a tree and bring the process to the

Gov. Chris Sununu gets a first lick after tapping a maple tree in Tamworth. Paula Tracy photo

public’s attention. Last year, the governor went to Westmoreland to promote March as Maple Sugar Month in the state.
Kate Stanley, a teacher at Madison Elementary, and her husband Tim Robinson own Turkey Street Maples, a sugar house in Chocorua, New Hampshire and they have allowed the school’s third and fourth graders to learn about the process which is unique to this corner of the world.

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