The Vermont Maple Syrup Maker's Association - which has served as the official voice for Vermont sugar makers since 1893 - will hold its 16th annual Open House Weekend March 25 and 26 to celebrate sugaring season.
This year, Vermont sugarhouses are participating, along with breweries, distilleries, and bed-and-breakfasts, to promote a wide range of maple products, draw tourism, and bolster the state's economy.
Amanda Voyer, the Association's administrative and communications coordinator, explained that Vermont produces “more than 40 percent of the annual crops for maple sugar farming in the United States.”
Given the size of Vermont relative to the rest of the U.S., the percentage is often surprising to those who hear the statistic.
“As little as we are,” Voyer said, “it's certainly something that we [at the Association] are proud of. Representing 14 counties in the state of Vermont, we have 92 participating sugarhouses this year for the Open House.”
As such, maple syrup contributes significantly to Vermont's economy.
Shifts in the weather
The Open House Weekend occurs on the heels of an unexpected and arguably late-in-the-season Nor'easter last week, which was preceded by several days of unseasonably cold weather, which was preceded by a couple of weeks of days with temperatures in the 50s and 60s.
It been a roller-coaster ride for sugar makers this winter, which raises questions about how climate change is affecting the state's economic pearl.
“In general, climate is [affecting] everything,” Voyer said. “Part of that effect is that some of the big storm events [that used to be] somewhat out of the norm are now becoming part of the norm, so that's becoming expected” - and farmers are planning ahead.
Due to temperature changes, optimal sugaring season is trending towards earlier in the year than in the past, Voyer explained, “so now people are tapping their trees earlier. [The optimal] temperature to tap trees is over 40 degrees during the day and less than 20 degrees at night. That temperature combination allows a build-up of pressure in trees that causes that sap to run.”
In addition to tapping their trees earlier in the season, farmers are preserving their crop through forest-management techniques.
“[Farmers are] making sure [they] have a diversity of species [in their forests] so that if something comes along, like an invasive species of insect, then the forest isn't wiped out in one singular event,” Voyer said.
She added that, with such careful planning, forest managers can encourage the growth of stages of the forest floor that can keep underground organic material protected, “and there's opportunity for re-growth and a healthy forest moving forward.”
One family's experience
Robb Family Farm, on Ames Hill in West Brattleboro, will be offering maple cookies, samples, homemade maple donuts, and tours for the Open House Weekend. They have seen both climate changes and changes in the process of maple sugaring.
“This orchard started from Charlie [Robb]'s great grandparents, and we've been tapping them every year [for 20 years],” Helen Robb said. “We have about 4,500 taps here on the farm. We have Charlie Jr., and his dad [Charlie Sr.] and I fill in around the edges, along with his nephew Dan Petrie, and a close friend of the family, Taylor Thurber.”
Helen Robb said climate change has definitely had an effect on their sugarbush, which the Robb family has been tapping for more than a century.
“We kind of go with the weather,” she said, “so yes, we've been tapping earlier. It used to be that you would start sugaring on Town Meeting Day, the first Tuesday in March. And this year, we boiled for the first time on the 22nd of February. So we started tapping the second week of February and over school vacation is when we get the majority of it done. So, if you go much earlier than that, your sap doesn't have a great sugar content.”
'Sacrilege to cut a maple tree'
“You try to manage your forests in a prudent way,” she added, noting that the family has needed to cut down hemlock trees to make space in the forest and to allow more sunshine to reach the trees.
“It's sacrilege to cut a maple tree,” she said with a light laugh, “but by the same token, sometimes you have to because it gets too crowded, which is counterproductive as well.”
“The evolution of sugaring has changed immensely,” she said. “We don't do saps and buckets, we use pipeline, [and] we do use some vacuums. You don't over-tap your trees. You are careful, you tap prudently.”
“I'm 80 years old,” said her husband, Charlie Robb Sr., “and I've seen a lot of changes in this business. We used to do it with buckets, and it was hard, heavy work ... and now with the pipeline system and the vacuum it has totally changed. We go places now with this pipeline that we'd never even thought of, or dreamed of, sugaring because it's so far out of the way, so it's totally different.
“We made a little over 800 gallons last year,” he said, “and Charlie Jr. always has a goal, and he has a goal of 1,000 gallons this year. The next thing is to straighten out the weather. The weather has been very much against us.”
Matter-of-factly, and pointedly, Helen Robb said, “These trees are our livelihood.”