The Elmira Maple Syrup Festival is less than four weeks away – but until Monday afternoon, local syrup producers had yet to harvest their first sap. “It’s been three solid months of below-normal temperatures. Some of our trees … are frozen solid through,” Elmira-area maple farmer Fred Martin tells CTV News. “We’re definitely needing Mother Nature to warm up a bit.” That’s exactly what happened as temperatures warmed up Monday. For the first time all season, Martin and other producers were seeing sap flow through their trees and into their lines. Normally, Martin says, the trees are all tapped, the lines are all running and full-scale production is underway by this time of year. While this year’s unusually frigid winter is delaying the season, Martin – who needed snowshoes to reach his crop Monday – says the heavy snow could actually be a boon for maple producers. That’s because the snow acts as a sort of insulator for maple trees’ roots, shielding it from the ice and frost. “I’m hopeful … that the trees will actually start to produce fairly quickly,” Martin says. But thanks to a more distant weather event, there are fewer maple trees for that snow to insulate than there were a year ago. Martin says last summer’s windstorms took down a significant amount of local crops, and dangling branches are still visible among the crops. Although sap will likely freeze up once again as temperatures plummet through Tuesday and into Wednesday, Martin says long-term forecasts are favourable for maple syrup production. Overall, Martin says crops may produce a below-average yield due to the late start to the season – but with an above-average year in 2013, farmers shouldn’t be hurting too badly. “Last year we had a lot of producers that had almost a crop and a half,” he says. “Even if we come in at 75 or 80 per cent of an average crop … I think most guys will be satisfied, considering the year we’ve had.”
