Full Text:

Local Syrup Season Came And Went Early

(with photo)

BY STEVE BIGHAM

Almost as quickly as it started, the maple syrup season was over this year.

Once again, El Nino was the force behind this freak of nature.

"This was the shortest, earliest season ever," explained Morgen McLaughlin of

McLaughlin Vineyards.

Normally, the maple syrup season kicks off around Valentine's Day and

continues on into March, she said. This year, the unseasonably warm weather

prompted the syrup to start running in late January and it was over less than

three weeks later.

Caught by surprise, Ms McLaughlin actually missed the first week of collection

and the short season cut the vineyard's maple syrup production way down.

"I had to cancel all my Boy Scout tours. They come to learn about how we make

syrup, but not this year," Ms McLaughlin said. "It has to be freezing at night

and it hasn't been."

Connecticut is the earliest of all the New England states in maple syrup

collection. States like Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire have not begun to see

sap.

Ms McLaughlin pointed out that those who took out futures in maple syrup are

probably making a fortune.

"The mildness of the weather and all the ice storms that wiped out the maple

trees in the Northern New England states have cut syrup production way down,"

she said. "Syrup prices are going to be very high over the next few years."

Canada, which produces 80 percent of world's maple syrup, is also going

through a rough season.

According to Ms McLaughlin, the sap is tapped as it travels up from the roots

and through the veins of the trees. The sap is collected with tubing. It can

also be collected in buckets put up at each tree.

The sap is what causes bud development and leaves to form.

"When the sap closes, you know spring is not that far away," she said. "Right

now, we're three weeks ahead in the season. If March continues above normal,

we're looking at a very early spring."

Ms McLaughlin joked that tree sap is a more accurate indicator of spring's

arrival than the groundhog.

Chuck Storo is the vineyards' master collector and does all the tapping at

McLaughlin Vineyards.