Warm Streak Not So Welcome For Maple Syrup Producers

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The warm weather lately is triggering an earlier than normal maple syrup season in Minnesota.

It's a problem for some, but not everyone -- the folks at Somerskogen Sugarbush are well on their way to producing record amounts of syrup.

Don Somers has produced maple syrup at Somerskogen in Minnetrista for more than two decades. This year, he got off to an early start thanks to the warm temperatures, but that's not the case for all syrup producers.

"Several people I've talked to already, if they were collecting by bags or pails, they've already quit the season and pulled out there spiles," he said.

Somers says that's because ideal conditions for production are cold nights with temperatures in the 20s or lower. If it stays above freezing for 36 hours, the sap flow will stop, and won't start until it turns cold again.

But he doesn't have to worry about that. A few years ago, they invested in better technology. In their old system, the sap would slowly drip from the tree into a bag. With the unseasonably warm temperatures, they wouldn't be collecting, but with their newly upgraded system, that's not the case.

"We switched to a vacuum system, which tricks the trees into thinking it's a low pressure system, and they keep producing sap," Somers said.

Somers says the warm temperatures have actually been a blessing. They began collecting sap about a month before the normal season kicked off.

"We're probably over halfway to a record season," he said.

But he says they'll still be watching the weather. If their trees bud early, that creates a different problem. It's a chemical change in the sap that occurs when the buds come out early.

"That changes the character of the syrup, and it doesn't have that normal robust maple flavor," Somers said. "It gets a little off-flavor, so that's when we stop, when the buds come out."

But in the mean time he says with plenty of syrup ready to bottle early, they'll be keeping busy enough -- they've already bottled 225 gallons of pure maple syrup.