With the fluctuating temperatures over the past week, maple syrup producers are tapping trees whenever they can. Harvesting the liquid gold can be a task for some business owners, including Gary Gorr, who owns Gorr’s Maple Syrup.
“I think the season is going to be short, because when it does warm up, it’s going to warm up quicker and won’t be freezing at night,” Gorr says.
The 75-year-old has already been tapping his maple sugar bush for the past week. Gorr, a second-generation owner of the farm, has been making the sweet stuff for more than 30 years and works mostly on his own. He says with the constant up and down of the temperatures we’ve seen lately, producers are forced to tap whenever they can.
“Usually it’s long drawn out,” Gorr says. “You’ll have maybe three or four days of run, and then … it might be cold for a week or so where it doesn’t do anything.”
Gorr has more than 45 acres of maple trees, and 2,600 taps in the trees. He says the biggest challenge for maple syrup producers is no matter how much you yield, it takes the same amount of work to get there.
“You have to go through the same motion of tapping, whether you get a lot, or you get very little.”
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Historically, the normal season to tap the sweet tree sap is mid- to late-March, but Gorr heads out in February.
“You have to go with your gut feeling,” Gorr says. “That’s why you have to be ready, no matter what.”