How not to miss your maple-syrup-making window!
You’re going to make maple syrup this year, and don’t want to miss your window. You’ve got all your tools and equipment ready. (If you don’t check out our new line of DIY maple syrup supplies!) But you don’t know when to tap. Not to worry. Here are the basics!
The bottom line is this: you aren’t going to be able to collect sap from a maple tree until the sap starts running. Maple sap runs when the tree freezes at night and thaws during the day. So when you tap is going to depend entirely on where you live. Geography and elevation come into play. Whether your sugar woods are on a south-facing or north-facing slope (also known as “aspect”). And most importantly, what the weather is doing!
Depending on where you live, you may tap as early as December or as late as April for your DIY maple syrup operation!
Climate
As you know, the climate is warming and weather patterns are changing, so the old traditions are becoming less and less useful. (For more on the climate and maple, read this!) For example, here in Central Vermont, Town Meeting Day (the first Tuesday in March) is when hill farmers would traditionally tap. For the last few decades, however, March has sometimes proved too late for us. These days, us hobby farmers are likely to get ourselves out in the sugar woods by mid-February.
Geography
Some of our customers that hail from North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia may start tapping, collecting and even boiling during the week between Christmas and New Years! That’s early by anybody’s standards. By the end of January, however, the rest of the Southern Midwest and Mid-Atlantic – Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania – will likely have joined them. Southern New England and thereabouts – Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Southern New York and Connecticut – will follow. Like Vermont, in the Northern Midwest, and in New England – Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northern New York, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire, folks typically don’t tap until at least mid-February or even March. And we’ve got customers at certain elevations in upstate New York and in Canada, for example, who may wait until April.
How to get started
The easiest way to get acclimated, if you are just starting out, is to pay attention to what other sugar makers are doing in your area. The forums on mapletrader, which are broken down by state, are a great resource for this. Or you could ask your local professional sugar maker and make a friend in the process! But if you see that sweet steam rising in the neighborhood, that’s a sure sign that it’s time to get a move on.
Many sugar makers we’ve spoken to say that once the new year has passed, you can’t tap too early, even if the sap is weeks away from flowing. But other folks caution that a tree starts closing its wound as soon as it is made, and that tapping early can limit the amount of sap you get.
So consider the above and find yourself a suitable weekend when it’s convenient to get out there and take pleasure in the annual rite of tapping. May it bring you health and happiness!
Happy Sugaring!
For more information on making your own, homemade maple syrup, check out our other helpful How-To blogs:
How to Filter Homemade Maple Syrup