It’s the height of maple season in central and northern New York, and this year is shaping up to be a great season.
Adam Wild, director at Cornell’s Uihlein Maple Research Forest in Lake Placid, said this winter's weather may have shaped one of the better maple seasons in recent years.
"Having the good, cold winter is good for maples," Wild said. "Maples want a nice cold period during their dormant season, that's healthy for the trees. Having a nice snow cold pack, which we have in the North Country, is beneficial for the trees as well."
Other central New York producers agree. Cristy Williams and her husband, Nate, own and operate Dutch Hill Maple, a maple farm in Tully. It’s been a generational labor of love with farm and product expansions bringing award-winning maple syrup, sugars and collaborations with other local businesses, across the state and beyond. Dutch Hill Maple is staying busy - and this year could bring one of the better seasons.
“Right now, the weather is definitely what we are looking for,” Williams said. “We want the above-freezing, low freezing temperature fluctuations we typically get this time of year.”
Williams said the temperature fluctuations actually help the maple sap collection; if it’s too cold, the sap stays frozen. Too warm, and trees stop producing as much. Williams said this year’s cold winter is unlike the past couple of years, and pushed back the start date for the season to later in February. In full, the maple season only lasts a couple of months at most. Williams said they hope to see sap flowing a couple more weeks.
“I would say we are probably at about half of what we would expect to get on an average year,” Williams said. “Right around half is a fair thing to say. So we would like to continue to go through at least the end of March.”
She said the best-case scenario, the sap keeps flowing into April.
