ATTICA, N.Y. — New batches of your favorite local maple syrup may be hitting the shelf a little early this year, thanks to the warm winter forcing local farmers to start production a few weeks sooner than normal.
It’s already that time of year for Merle Maple in Attica.
Time to start harvesting the sap from their thousands of maple trees.
“The winter is milder and warming up sooner, so we start tapping sooner,” said Greg Zimpfer with Merle Maple. “Traditionally you would have started tapping in late February/early March, and now, we’re tapping in early January.”
Greg has worked at Merle Maple for 40 years, and for the past 10 of those years, he feels warm winters and early starts are just the new normal.
However, he is confident that the maple syrup tastes just as good as every year prior.
“[The weather] changes the timeline, you just have to pay more attention to the weather forecast,” Greg said.
These warmer winters are felt by maple syrup farmers across our area.
An hour away from Attica, in Concord, Owner of Gabel’s Maple Syrup, Norbert Gabel Jr. sat down to show some pictures of their family tapping trees over the years.
“The absence of snow is strange to me, because usually we’d tap on snowshoes,” Norbert said.
Even he is getting ready to work this upcoming weekend.
“My target date for tapping was always Valentine’s Day,” Norbert said. “Our target dates need to be moved up some because of the warmer winters we are having.”
They both know that the perfect weather for maple syrup is when it’s below freezing a night and above freezing during the day.
And our future weather is set up to do just that for many days to come.
