Maple sap is running

Demand is stronger than ever

By FRITZ MAYER

REGION — It was a beehive of activity on the Justus Asthalter Maple Syrup operation near Parksville, NY on the spring evening of March 20. Sean and Dawn Boyes and a couple of their sons were busy hauling wood to keep the fire going, watching over the boiling sap and otherwise tending to business. They had over 2,000 gallons of sap to turn into syrup that evening, and were likely to be going to bed very late. That’s the way life is when the sap is running. Sean started working the operation with his grandfather Asthalter when he was eight years old, and eventually the couple took over the business.

And when the sap flows, it’s time for action.

“Sap is like milk,” said Dawn, “it will sour. You get a higher quality product if you bottle as soon as possible.” And bottling it takes quite a bit of time and effort. The sap is brought into the sap house with a vacuum machine that pulls it through hundreds of feet of blue tubing that is attached with taps to some 1,500 trees. The 2,000 gallons of sap will ultimately become about 40 to 45 gallons of syrup.

But this year, the work for producers in the region may pay off with a higher bit of profit. The retail price in this area is about $50 per gallon. But that’s a bargain compared to current prices in New York City. According to an article in The New York Times, at a Fairway store, maple syrup is going for $21.99 a liter or more than $83 per gallon, while at Gristedes, a 12-ounce bottle is priced at $14.99, which translates to nearly $160 a gallon.

Because prices are up, Senator Chuck Schumer thinks this is an opportune time to expand the industry. On March 9, Schumer introduced a bill to help small producers in New York and across the country gain access to trees on private land. The bill would encourage private farm owners to allow their trees to be tapped in return for federal grants. He hopes the program would greatly expand production in the state.

Schumer has pointed out that there are 289 million sugar maple trees in the state and less that one percent of them are tapped. The rest of the trees represent to him a large, literally, untapped resource.

If passed, the bill would also boost the industry in Pennsylvania, which also has a significant maple syrup industry; in the United States, Vermont is the largest producer, New York is second and Pennsylvania is seventh.

Canada produces much more maple syrup than the United States, and the past two years have been not good for them, which is one reason the price has increased.

Bob Simon produces maple syrup from Morning Star Farm in Honesdale, PA. He said up north it was too cold for a large part of the spring for the producers to collect sap and make syrup. “We had a good season here, but we’re at the southern range of maple producing region, and the parts of the country that make a lot, northern new England and Quebec, had too cold a season, and they had a very poor production, and because their syrup was not entering the market that drove prices up.”

The danger for local producers this season was that it was looking for a while that the weather was going to turn too warm too early. Maple producers didn’t particularly enjoy that warm spell last week. Simon said, “Maple producers like the weather to be repeatedly disappointing because that return to cold is what resets the pump.”

Dawn agreed. “We need freezing nights and thawing days.”

This year, Dawn said, she has noticed a new crop of backyard producers who are boiling up enough syrup for personal use. She thinks that’s due to the fact that more people are discovering how satisfying it is. She said, “It’s a good time, there’s camaraderie, comparing notes; it’s hard work, but it’s definitely a good time.”