Maple Syrup Season Opens This Weekend

McLaughlin Vineyards of Sandy Hook announces its annual “Maple Syrup Days” will begin Saturday, February 14.

The maple syrup season in Connecticut begins in early February with the annual tapping of its sugar maple trees. The vineyard has a fully operational sugarhouse and offers maple syrup demonstrations and tractor rides everyday through the end of March.

Tractor rides, maple syrup tastings, and sugarhouse tours are available every day from 10 am to 5 pm, weather permitting.

The price is $5 and includes a maple syrup tasting reception.

More information can be obtained by calling 426-1533. The vineyard is on Albert’s Hill Road; call for directions.

Maple syrup is produced in Connecticut beginning around the second week of February when daily daytime temperatures average around 40 degrees and night temperatures dip under 32 degrees. The season usually continues until the first day of spring or about the third week of March.

Metal or plastic taps are drilled into sugar maple trees to collect the sap that has begun to flow from the trees’ roots to the ends of the branches beginning the process of leaf development. The sap that is collected from sugar maple trees is clear and on average has about two to four percent sugar content.

The sap is transported to a sugarhouse and is boiled until the sap turns thick and brown with a boiling point sugar content of 59 percent, which is a Grade A maple syrup.

To make one gallon of maple syrup one needs to collect about 40 gallons of raw sap.