The warm weather conditions this winter have had varying effects on maple syrup production locally.
“It’s definitely not ideal conditions,” said Michel Lamoureux, who co-owns Cassburn Sweets with his wife Lucie in Vankleek Hill.
With a couple of exceptions, daytime temperatures have been consistently above freezing for the past couple of weeks, and are even forecasted to reach the double digits on the Celsius scale during the first full week of March.
Lamoureux said some maple sugar producers had sap running from their trees even in January when weather took a warm turn. He said the real season normally starts around the first week of March, but the sap had been running at Cassburn Sweets during the final two weeks of February. The Lamoureux’s allowed the sap to accumulate in their storage tanks and ran it through the reverse osmosis system they have which removes water from the sap before further amounts are removed during boiling. The first boiling of 2024 at Cassburn Sweets took place on Monday, March 4, one day earlier than the first boil in 2023.
To offset the warm daytime weather, Cassburn Sweets installed a refrigeration system on its storage tank this year to preserve the sap before it is boiled. On March 4, the sap temperature was 2.7 degrees Celsius or 37 degrees Fahrenheit as it entered the evaporator. Below the evaporator’s boiling chambers, it was 537 degrees Celsius or 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit in the firebox.
Cassburn Sweets has 6,500 taps in its trees. As an Ecocert Canada certified organic producer, it is limited to a maximum of three taps per tree. The Ecocert logo appears on all of Cassburn Sweets products.
The warm winter meant the sap was even running in December and January at MND Maple, located in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge and Vankleek Hill.
Owner Neil Cruise said they boiled that early sap and the syrup was good.
“I liked it. It tasted good to me,” he said.
Cruise said the season will be stable for production as long as conditions are good with a cycle of temperatures below freezing at night, and above during the day.
MND was boiling sap again on February 29 and there were plans to boil again during the first week of March.
Cruise also sells and distributes maple sugar production supplies to other producers. He said the early season has made it difficult for manufacturers to meet customer demand.
As for the success of the 2024 maple syrup season, Cruise said it will be easier to assess once it has ended.
“I think it will be alright, you never know until the season’s over,” he said.
