It’s been a somewhat fickle winter in the sugar bush this year — one that could soon be coming to an end.
Some Cattaraugus County maple producers tapped trees early this year — in January — and collected an early run. Up-and-down temperatures resulted in different sap runs at various times across the region.
Recent warm weather may bring the sap run to an end as soon as buds come out on the maple trees.
For Jim Ellis, a small producer, of Ellis Road in East Otto, “It was a terrible year.”
While he didn’t start tapping trees as early as some, like others, Ellis found the sap to have a low sugar content — around 1 percent.
“All you were doing was burning wood,” he said Wednesday. It took more energy to boil down the sap than the value of the finished product.
“The sap hasn’t run in two days” because of the heat, Ellis added. He’d heard some maple producers in Ischua were pulling their taps because of the warm weather.
It takes nighttime temperatures in the 20s and daytime temperatures just above freezing to get a good sap run. Many producers add a vacuum assist to their piping.
“Last year was a very good year,” Ellis noted.
It was much the same story over at Moore’s Maple Shack and Pancake House at 10444 Galen Hill Road, Freedom.
Earl Moore has been making maple syrup since the 1960s.
“We’re doing kind of poorly this year,” said Moore, who had just returned Wednesday afternoon from the woods with his son, Bill, and another load of sap to boil down. “We didn’t get an early run” because it was too cold in the woods, he added.
They began putting 3,000 taps on trees in February but didn’t get much that month.
“We’re making nice syrup now,” Moore said.
“This warm weather — I’m in my mid-70s, and I’ve never seen it this warm, this early in the season and for so long.”
Moore was working in a short-sleeve shirt Wednesday with temperatures near 70.
“We’ll see what happens next week,” Moore said. “I’m hoping it cools down. I’ve never seen it like this.”
Moores average about 1,200 gallons of maple syrup annually. Much of it is consumed in the pancake house.
At Sprague’s Maple Farms in Portville, one of the larger producers in the region, owner Randy Sprague said Wednesday this year’s run “hasn’t been so sweet,” referring to the lower sugar content most producers experienced.
“The timing was unusual,” Sprague said. “It’s the earliest we’ve ever tapped, in January.”
Sprague said there has been production in February and March as well. He has a large sugar bush behind his restaurant on Route 305, where the sap is turned into maple syrup.
He also leases other areas and collects sap from those areas in tanker trucks, which haul it to Portville, where much of the water is removed by reverse osmosis before being boiled down.
“The sap production was excellent,” Sprague explained. “The problem was the sugar content. It probably took 65 to 70 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.”
There was nearly 50 percent more water to remove than normal.
“It’s not going to be a washout,” Sprague said. “The flavor is good.”
Sprague’s started its weekend tours last weekend. Wagon rides are offered to the top of the hill, where an old-fashioned sugar shanty sits. Visitors can smell the maple sap being boiled into syrup over a wood fire. The tours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Western New York Maple Weekend tours will also be offered March 19 and 20 and April 2 and 3, Sprague said. Sprague’s also offers an annual Easter egg hunt with 1,500 eggs hidden on the hill.
