Vermont Daily News report by Environment Reporter Allaire Diamond and staff

Cabot, Vt. – February 2, 2010 – According to some Vermont maple producers, 2010 may bring maple production to another all-time high. At the Vermont Farm Show in Barre, Vt., on January 26, sugarmaker Glenn Goodrich of Goodrich’s Maple Farm in Cabot, Vt., noted that Vermont is just now returning to the maple production levels of the Second World War: “Vermont produced a million gallons in 1944, [and] this last year hit a million gallons again.”

In 1944 and 1945, as cane sugar poured into the war effort, Americans at home tightened their belts and consumed more maple syrup, considered by many at the time to be a poor substitute.  These days, the state’s signature sweetener is in demand again, but current consumers see it as a luxurious treat, rather than a byproduct of patriotic frugality. Prices have risen in recent years and production has followed.

In fact, Vermont’s 2009 production was 30% higher than in 2008 and a 2009 federal study put the total tally at 920,000 gallons. Goodrich’s operation follows this pattern. His family has been sugaring on the same property since 1840, so they’ve seen maple trends come and go. In the early days, sugarmakers actually made granulated sugar rather than syrup. The granulated product kept longer but took much more effort to produce.

In recent years, Goodrich says he’s seen “a good upturn in the volume of our sales” of syrup, which has caused him and his family to “tap more trees each year.  This year will be over 30,000 taps and trying to keep up with the sales.”

Many factors contribute to the big return for maple sugaring.  Speaking from his farm’s recent experiences, Goodrich reports that,  “Our customers are looking for a healthy product and more and more people are looking to do that. It’s really helping our business.” While no scientific evidence shows maple syrup to be more healthful than sugar, corn syrup, or other sweeteners, it is less refined and has some trace minerals. Consumers trying to eat more local foods or support local businesses may also turn to maple syrup from family farms such as Goodrich’s.

Sugarmakers may also be benefiting from wider demand for a range of syrup grades. Whereas the lighter Grade A Fancy and Medium Amber syrup grades were once the main source of sugarers’ profits, consumers increasingly also value Grade A Dark Amber and Grade B syrup for their stronger maple flavor. Sugarmakers can’t control the grade of syrup they get: weather, microorganisms in the sap, and some production techniques all play a role. Darker grades typically come at the end of the season or during warmer spells.

Brian Stowe, Woodlands Manager and Sugaring Operations Manager at the University of Vermont’s Proctor Maple Research Center, notes that in the past, sugarmakers getting Grade B syrup might cease operating for the season. Now, the increased demand for this product may provide an opportunity for sugarmakers to keep producing later.

Sugarmakers like Goodrich are certainly increasing their efforts by tapping more trees, investing in more efficient sap-collecting and evaporator technology, and boiling sap later in the season. However, Stowe emphasizes that above anything else, maple production depends on the weather.

Sugar maple sap flows when freezing nights alternate with days where the temperature rises above 32 degrees Fahrenheit. This pattern typically occurs over a six-week stretch in late winter. But not every day in this period is a day when sap flows, and the season can get interrupted by extended cold or warm spells, or cut off altogether if it stops getting cold at night. Other conditions, from too much wind to too little snow to ice storm damage in trees, may also affect sap flow.

Sam Cutting IV, president of Dakin Farm, said weather, both in Vermont and in other maple-producing regions, had a lot to do with why the demand for Vermont syrup is up.  “The price had gone up the year before so more people got out there and the weather was very cooperative for us.”  The season, he said, “just kept going and going.”

He recalls that in 2007, “it stayed just a little bit cold, especially in Quebec. Quebec makes a lot more syrup than Vermont. They provide a big portion of the world supply. It just was too cold up there, a little bit warmer down in Vermont, so we had a halfway decent year.”

But even then it wasn’t enough to satisfy the world’s sweet tooth.  Of the demand, says Cutting, “I just don’t see it going down very much.”

“There was a lot of syrup out there this year but the price was high. So, a lot of sugar makers made some pretty good money. They made a good living at it,” he said.  Naturally, sugarmakers hope these trends in both production and consumption will continue.

Modern sugarmakers have many more resources at their disposal than did their counterparts at the end of the Second World War. Back in 1944, sap dripped into buckets or metal tubes, and no one had the reverse osmosis systems that concentrate sap by removing some of its water before it goes into the evaporator, decreasing both boiling time and fuel consumption.

Today, plastic tubing and reverse osmosis systems are commonplace, as are multiple efficient evaporator designs and new innovations continue to develop. The Proctor Maple Research Center recently developed a new device called a check-valve spout that increases the sap yield of individual taps. Yet the incentive was there in 1944. Brian Stowe says that in those days, “anyone who could was tapping their extra trees,” to meet the wartime demand.

Gary Gaudette, president of Leader Evaporator, says production is at an all-time high for the 122-year old Swanton-based Vermont company which manufactures maple sugaring equipment and supplies. “People are getting paid a fair price for their product so it really stimulated interest to tap more trees. Obviously, if we tap more trees, we need more tubing and fittings and equipment to process the sap. So, we’re quite busy,” said Gaudette.

Through a licensing agreement with the University of Vermont, Leader is also marketing and selling the new check-valve spout, which is being manufactured by Progressive Plastics in Williamstown.

Dean Potter, Leader Evaporator’s Production Coordinator, says of the clear tubing that the company produces for maple sugaring, “Almost as fast as we can make this stuff, it’s going out the door!”  The same holds true for the company’s shiny metal evaporators.

Gaudette points out, “Our sales are up about 30% from where they were last year.”  That has stimulated jobs at Leader too. “We’ve put on about ten employees,” he said.

Today’s high prices for maple may lure other sugarmakers into the woods and that’s good news for all. With the right management techniques, a sugarbush can support maple sugaring operations sustainably for generations as it has for the Goodrich family in Cabot.

Glenn Goodrich enthusiastically sums up the mood surrounding Vermont’s maple industry, “It’s an exciting time in maple, for sure!”

-Vermont Daily News report by Environment Reporter Allaire Diamond and staff