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Maple producer taps new strategies for earlier seasonsMaple producer taps new strategies for earlier seasons

Tom and Cecile Branon tapped their maple trees in early December. The past two years, they have tapped earlier than ever.

Susan Harlow

February 5, 2025

5 Min Read
A man boiling maple inside of a factory
EARLY BOIL: The Branons’ first boil of the season was on Dec. 20, tied with 2023 for their earliest boil ever. Photos courtesy of the Branon family

Despite this year’s arctic cold, winters in Vermont have been steadily warming.

For sugarmakers, that’s a big deal. The sugaring process depends greatly on weather, especially temperature and its fluctuations.

Between the 1960s and early 2000s, the sugaring season began one to two weeks earlier and was shortened by about 10%, according to research from the University of Vermont’s Proctor Maple Research Center.

Like many sugarmakers, the Branon family has been tapping their trees earlier in the season, partly in response to an earlier maple season.

Tom and Cecile Branon and their sons — Evan and Kyle — have been sugaring as Branon Family Maple Orchards for 30 years. They have 90,000-plus taps, and they sell syrup and a wide range of maple products at their sugarhouse in Fairfield, as well as online.

This year, the Branons started tapping Dec. 2 and first boiled on Dec. 20. It’s the earliest they have ever started. Traditionally, Vermont sugarmakers don’t start tapping until Town Meeting Day, the first Tuesday in March.

Tom and Cecile Branon

Besides catching the first run of sap, early tapping has another advantage: using labor more efficiently by spreading it out.

“Everybody’s struggling with labor,” Cecile says. “You need a lot of help when you tap, when you have a bad storm, and when you’re cleaning up at the end of the season. We can get a little extra help on weekends, but that’s it. ... So, if the trees are ready to go and have frozen up, we start tapping.”

Related:Harvesting sunshine: Can solar panels co-exist in orchards?

But early tapping also has a big drawback. The maples haven’t been dormant long enough to build up many sugar reserves, so the first run of sap may have a lower sugar content and darker color as the sap lines flush.

Adjusting to warmer times

Other strategies have helped the Branons adjust to a warmer climate.

When Tom and Cecile first set up their sugarbush in Fairfield, they buried the main sap lines. That was in 1984, when they bought the farm, built a sawmill and then a sugarhouse from trees they cut and milled.

The sap is piped belowground from as far as a mile away.

“Warmth is the enemy of good sap; it allows bacteria to grow,” Cecile says. “The ground is keeping the sap cool, and that has saved us many a year. Over the years, when it’s been very warm in March, we were boiling as fast as we can.”

The underground lines also prevent damage from falling trees and animals chewing the lines.

In 2016, the Branons bought a forest parcel in the Cold Hollow Mountains, 15 miles away in the neighboring town of Bakersfield.

“We were looking to get away from Fairfield because we wanted to extend our season as much as we could,” Cecile says. “It’s 5 to 10 degrees colder there, the snow is deep, and the season runs two weeks later. It’s a huge advantage.”

Related:FFA member’s unique project: Chestnuts

A man drilling into a tree to create a tap for maple on a winter day

This season, they’re building out a new system for the Bakersfield sugarbush: new sap lines, vacuum pumps, tanks and a reverse osmosis machine. Sap is trucked to Fairfield for boiling.

A year ago, the Branons could count on about 95,000 taps, one per tree. But that was before a severe windstorm — temperature isn’t the only weather hazard — raised havoc in their sugarbushes.

“Until we’re done tapping for this season, we won’t know exactly how many trees survived,” Cecile says. “The home farm got hit extremely hard, and Bakersfield got hit second hardest. But we just bit the bullet, said a prayer and took on Bakersfield with a new system. We’re hoping to get enough taps to get us back to where we were.”

What does future hold for maple?

Although smaller sugaring operations, especially those that still collect sap with buckets, can be more flexible dealing with weather challenges, big operations adapt in other ways.

With tubing and vacuum pumps, sugarmakers can gather sap in less-than-perfect conditions and double the amount of sap collected, writes Mark Isselhardt, former maple Extension specialist with the University of Vermont Extension’s Proctor Maple Research Farm.

Related:UC offers young orchard workshops

A shelf filled with bottles and jars of maple products

Monocultures of sugar maples are risky. Sugar maples germinate at lower temperatures than many other trees. That’s been a plus in the cold North, but maybe less so as the climate warms.

Another mitigation strategy is promoting growth of red maples in sugarbushes. They can survive a wider range of environmental conditions, ward off insect infestations, and also have sap that can be made into syrup.

Vermont is the maple king

U.S. sugarmakers made 5.86 million gallons of syrup in 2024. Here is a breakdown by state:

  • Vermont, 3.11 million gallons

  • New York, 846,000 gallons

  • Maine, 701,000 gallons

  • Pennsylvania, 182,000 gallons

  • New Hampshire, 149,000 gallons

  • Massachusetts, 49,000 gallons

Yield per tap increased for most states. It was up 17% in 2024 from 2023 for all U.S. producers. The number of taps also grew by 5%.

Harlow writes from Vermont.

A sugarhouse for bottling and selling maple products

About the Author

Susan Harlow

Susan writes for American Agriculturist from Vermont.

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