Two local maple syrup producers bow out until next year

By Sally Quale
There was an abundance of curling, concerts, and crazy weather in our town this past winter. Not so with the maple sugaring operations of four local families who made differing decisions on the big question: To tap or not to tap.

The managers at both Great Mountain Forest and Laurelbrook Farm chose to forgo production entirely, conceding that it was a bit of a gamble and recognizing that their decision was an unusual step.

“First time we haven’t sugared in forty years,” says Robert Jacquier of Laurelbrook Farm, where four generations of family members are in residence. “Last time was in 1969.”

Jacquier, whose farm abuts Norfolk in East Canaan, reports that unusual winds this winter tangled and took down much of the plastic tubing that winds through their woods from the tapping spouts in trees to the collecting bin. He decided to shift the labor needed for repairs to other uses.

“With about 825 cows now,” he says, “it is hard for our work force to find time for sugaring. We used to produce 500 to 600 gallons a season, but this year, we never even started the evaporator. Maybe when my great-grandchildren get a little older…” he trailed off wistfully.

Star Childs took the same course for Great Mountain Forest. “We didn’t lift a finger,” he says. “With the abnormal thaw we had in January threatening to fast-forward the running of the sap, we made the decision to pull the plug on our syrup production for this year.”

Childs offers several other reasons why he did not tap. “It was also a bad health year for sugar maples. Beginning last May, the fungus anthracnose compromised 40 to 50 percent of the leaves on our local trees, and since it is through the leaves that sap is produced, we chose not to tap on the side of caution. The big question is: will the sugar maples come back this year, leafing out fully?”

Two other local families, the Meads and the Anstetts, went forward with their usual sugaring operations despite harbingers of a low yield.

Judy Mead feeds the fire for the evaporator in her sugar house. Photo by Winter Mead.

Judy Mead, who has been in the syrup business with Winter, her husband, for close to 30 years, acknowledges
that this was a poor season. “We produced half of what we usually do,” she says. “We’re always faced with the fact that you cannot reliably predict the weather. Still, we will have enough produce to supply our customers, though not as much.”

The Meads sell directly to such local retailers as Guido’s in Great Barrington and the Norfolk Corner Store, and to catalog houses such as Harney’s.

Terry Anstett, whose lives with his family on the Greenwoods Road East property settled by his great-grandfather in the late 1800s, also blames the weather for lowering his yield by 20 percent this year. “The month of February was too cold,” he recalls, “and the March nights weren’t cold enough.”

Nights below 32 degrees and days above 40 and remaining consistent over a one to two month season constitutes the perfect sugaring weather.

“On the other hand,” says Anstett, “in a normal year, sap would have stopped running by now, but because of the sporadic freezing we’ve had at night during March, the trees produced a little more sap that was still running in mid-April.”

He says there is never a problem selling their syrup. The simple sign “Pure Maple Syrup” posted behind their house that faces Route 44 has always turned enough passersby into ready and eager customers.

The Indians called it “syruphas”

Since native Americans introduced it to the
colonists in the 1600s, maple “syruphas” has been the most
sustainable product of our forests. On a good day, one
sugar maple at least 10 inches in diameter will yield
1½ gallons of sap per tap; if the tree remains
healthy, it could continue producing for 400 years.
For further information, visit the Web sites of maple
sugar research centers at Cornell University and the
University of Vermont.

Photo, top by Lloyd Garrison: Terry Anstett’s production of syrup on his Greenwoods Road East property is down by 20 percent this year.