Mother Nature’s gentle winter has meant that this year’s maple syrup season is already underway. According to experts, a short winter does not mean a poor harvest, quite the contrary.
The temperature is ideal for producing maple syrup. Serge Beaulieu, President of the Quebec Fédération des producteurs acéricoles, explained that there is nothing better than cold nights followed by days with temperatures of 4 or 5 degrees to make the sap start to drip from the taps.
A thin layer of snow on the ground is also encouraging to producers. With only a small amount of snow covering their roots, maple trees warm up as soon as the sun comes out. « We’re ahead by two or three weeks, » confirmed Beaulieu. « I’m confident that we’ll have a good season. We need 20 to 27 days of freezing and thawing and it will be a success. »
The only issue that could complicate the sugaring off is that the temperature could rise too rapidly. « If we have a whole week of warm weather, it would be the end of the run, » admitted Serge Beaulieu. « We can’t control the weather which is why we are collecting sap as soon as we can. »
In 2015, Québec produced over 107 million pounds of syrup, of which 800,000 came from the Suroît. « It’s difficult to calculate because there are producers who sell to buyers on the spot. So, in total we have to up the million. I know that we have a total of 2.4 M taps in the Suroît and that in our region, maple syrup represents a yearly economy of about $10 M.
Translated by Cathleen Johnston
