By Amelia Seepersaud/Addison County Independent
Vermont is small in population and land mass, but it is very big in at least one thing.
Maple syrup.
The United States Department of Agriculture’s final tally of this spring’s season showed that Vermont is once again the leading producer of maple syrup nationally.
According to the recently released USDA report, Vermont produced 2,045,000 gallons of maple syrup this year — almost half of the total 4,179,000 gallons produced in the U.S.
A distant second in maple syrup production was New York with 750,000 gallons. Maine was No. 3 with 470,000 gallons, and the only state outside the Northeast to boast substantial maple syrup production was Wisconsin, which was the No. 4 producer this year with 402,000 gallons.
“Vermont produces more maple syrup than any other state, and it’s at the heart of our state’s culture, history and economy,” U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said in a recent press release.
Despite the big numbers, local sugarmaker Don Gale of Twin Maple Sugarworks in Lincoln said 2023 was an on-again, off-again season.
“We started Feb. 15, which is the earliest start we’ve ever had, and we didn’t get anything we wanted until the 22nd,” he said. “And we didn’t gather again until March 13. This was the closest we’ve had to a traditional season, which starts in March.”
But even with a traditional starting date for gathering maple sap, Twin Maple’s season did not last particularly long.
“We ended early this year,” Gale said. “We ended April 12 and we usually go to the 16th.”
Even with the unusual timing, Gale believed that the season was a success.
“We had a pretty good season. We made a lot of light syrup, more than we are accustomed to,” he said.
The USDA mandated that maple syrup be classified as one of four kinds, from lightest do darkest: golden delicate, amber rich, robust, and dark. Twin Maple Sugarworks this season produced 1,500 gallons of syrup, with only 400 of that being robust, Gale explained. The rest was amber rich.
Lighter syrup generally commands a better price from consumers.
“We ended up with no dark syrup,” he said. “We usually make two barrels or more.”
He believes the reason he produced no dark syrup this year was due to the weather conditions on the days the sap ran — overcast and windy — which he said were not ideal for producing dark syrup.
“We ended up on par with last year, which was a really good year. The sugar content of the maple sap was down last year. So even though we gathered more sap last year, we ended up on par this year and gathered 30,000 less gallons.”
The 2022 season had been Twin Maples’ earliest start. Gale didn’t know if this trend of early seasons would continue.
“I think it’s gonna be all over the place. Some years it’ll start early, some years late,” Gale said. “A couple years back it started in March and ended in May. We gathered a lot of sap and sugar content was way down because of the drought in the fall. I heard some real horror stories. A lot of processing for less syrup.”
Why is Vermont the lead producer of maple syrup in the United States?
“Well, I think there is a lot more involvement here in Vermont as far as production,” Gale said. “New York has the largest sugar bush. I think, if I’m not mistaken it equals that of Quebec. But not all of it is tappable. So much of it is tied up in the forever wild. I don’t know how the number of taps compare but we have more people involved.”
“There’s gotta be more than 10 operations in Lincoln,” he said. “And some of those are also a pretty good size too.”
Now that the season is over, it is time to clean up. The folks at Twin Maple Sugarworks are cleaning all the equipment and starting their preparations for what will hopefully be another successful season next spring.
Around that same time the maple production stats came out, Sen. Welch teamed up with Democratic U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire and Chris Murphy from Connecticut to sponsor a bill in the Senate called the Market Access, Promotion and Landowner Education Support for Your Regionally Underserved Producers Act, which spells out the catchy acronym MAPLE SYRUP.
If passed, the legislation, co-sponsored by Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders, would extend and expand the Acer Access and Development Program, which supports maple syrup producers in Vermont and across the country.
The MAPLE SYRUP Act would extend and increase authorized funding for the Maple Research and Market Promotion program from the current $6.4 million to $30 million, providing increased support for maple syrup producers through research and education on natural resources sustainability and the marketing of maple syrup and maple-sap products.
More information about the Maple Research and Market Promotion program is online at tinyurl.com/MapleGrants.
