Sugar houses prepare for the 2021 sugar seasonDate: 3/1/2021 WESTERN MASS. – It’s synonymous with this time of year in New England.
That beloved sticky, sugary, sweet breakfast nectar known as maple syrup.
Each year, as the first hints of spring start to reveal themselves when February melts into March, local maple producers start the sugaring season. While the weather plays a significant role in how successful the season will be from year to year, like many other industries, the lingering pandemic presents an added challenge.
Reminder Publishing reached out to several area maple sugaring operations to see how they are approaching the 2021 season and how area residents can get their hands on the delicacy to drizzle on their breakfasts this year.
A directory of sugar shacks in the state is also available at massmaple.org.
Deer Run Maple Sugar House
15 Ed Jones Rd, Otis
Ray Chapdelain, the owner of Deer Run Maple Sugar House in Otis since 1989, said he was planning on setting up the taps over the weekend of Feb. 26.
“I’m starting the tap Friday, I put out about 700 to 900 taps and this’ll be all snowshoes, there’s about 15 to 18 inches of snow up there right now. I’ve got a small crew together and I hope to be tapped by Sunday if everything goes right, snowshoes slow things down a bit,” he said.
While Chapdelain said they mostly just sell maple syrup, he said they do make candy as well by request.
“I do candy on a want basis, I don’t have a storefront at the sugar house, but I do sell syrup out of there. I’ll make some for the season but after that if people call and ask, I’ll do them,” he said.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Chapdelain said sales were down.
“My sales this year were probably down about 30 percent and I’m sure COVID was a factor in that. I usually have a fair amount of visitors that stop in or need advice. From February on, very few people came in,” he said.
Going into the new season, Chapdelain said he is looking forward to another year.
“We’ve got a lot of snow on the ground and the frost is nice. I’m hoping for a good year with cold nights and warm days, but it’s a jump ball. It’s a lot of labor and I’ve been doing it since 1989, so I’ve got to love it if I keep doing it,” he said.
The Maple Hut
1162 River Rd., Agawam
As the annual sugar shack season begins to ramp up, The Maple Hut in Agawam is prepping for another year under different guidelines.
According to Mike Ryczek, the owner of the hut, the weather usually dictates when the season officially starts for them each year.
“It starts when the freezing and thawing temperatures become consistent,” said Ryczek, who stated that making syrup from sap is a hobby he and his family enjoys. “Every year is different.” If temperatures reach 40 degrees during the daytime and 20 degrees at night, then sap will start to flow.
In past years, Ryczek and his family have been able to collect sap as early as January because conditions allowed them to. This year, Ryczek said that the sap began to flow around the end of February. Depending on the weather, this collecting process could take anywhere between a few weeks to a couple months, according to Ryczek.
“The only way I can determine how much sap I get is if I put more taps out,” said Ryczek. “The more trees I have, the more sap I’m potentially going to get.”
From the sap, Ryczek and his family create syrup to either sell or make candy with. To produce candy, Ryczek said he raises the temperature of the syrup to above boiling, thus creating this hardened sugar.
Because they are a small business that does not sell to grocery stores, Ryczek said that he avoids producing too much maple cream because it is a product that has a shelf life. “It’s a product that we don’t move too much,” said Ryczek. “But candy, we make on-demand.”
During the summer, Ryczek will produce candy when people call the hut personally. During the sugar shack season, however, the business makes sure to have some candy on hand since that is when most people want it.
Since COVID-19 began early last year, Ryczek has had to adjust his approach to selling products. The time period for collecting sap in 2020 ended before restrictions were set in place, but less people were visiting the sugar shack for syrup once businesses started closing, according to Ryczek.
As the pandemic started to get worse, Ryczek brought his signs inside, and only started to sell when customers would call to look for something specific.
“That’s kind of like what we’re doing now,” said Ryczek. “People do come by, and we put what they want into a bag, and hand it over. But we’re not promoting it too heavily.”
Ryczek has been making syrup with his wife and children as a hobby since 2006. In a pre-COVID-19 world, he said customers would come by to see a tour of the small shack, and even taste test some of the syrup. As of right now though, the family is just producing and selling it when people want it.
“It’s something fun for the kids to get out there and experience where food comes from,” said Ryczek. “It’s not just put it on your pancakes and it’s done. There’s a long process to get there.”
People who are looking to buy candy or syrup can do so by calling The Maple Hut at 789-6477.
Little Oak Farm
650 Monson Rd., Wilbraham
Peter Corriveau began tapping trees when he was young. “He’s been doing it forever,” said his wife, Beverlee Corriveau. The couple own Little Oak Farm, in Wilbraham. Last year, sugaring season started about a month early, but the trees this year are right on time and have just begun dripping sap.
Beverlee described Little Oak Farm as “a pretty small operation.” The couple tap three different stands of sugar bushes in Wilbraham and produced about 75 gallons of syrup last year. Because the operation is so small, she said that they don’t produce enough sugar to make other kinds of maple products.
‘We just do maple syrup,” Beverlee said. “We’re known for our decorative bottles.”
Those bottles are sold at the Little Oak Farm’s on-site farmstand, where they also sell seasonal flowers and vegetables, and at the Big Y Supermarket in Wilbraham. Rather than the pandemic making it more difficult to sell their syrup, Beverlee said, the opposite is true, “because people can come in [to the farmstand] – it’s not a big store. It really worked out well.”
Little Oak Farm can be reached at 519-2257 or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.
com/Little-Oak-Farm-101504561218034.
Ferrindino Maple
284 Glendale Rd., Hampden
One of the largest maple syrup producers in western Massachusetts is Ferrindino Maple in Hampden. The Ferrindino family taps roughly 3,000 sugar maple trees and produces between 1,200 and 1,300 gallons of syrup over the five and half to six-week maple sugaring season.
Andrew Ferrindino told Reminder Publishing that the business produced its first syrup of the year on Feb. 25. “We had a good freeze, which is good. We also have a nice snowpack, which we don’t always get,” he said. Both of these conditions are favorable for the trees to produce sap.
From that sap, Ferrindino Maple makes syrup, maple cream and candy, which is sold at their stand. The syrup is also sold at 10 Big Y Supermarkets around the area.
“Our stand sales at our farm are triple [this year]. People are home a lot more. Local sales have picked up,” Ferrindino said. The grocery store sales have slowed a little because people are focused on buying necessities, he said.
Ferrindino Maple can be reached at 519-7101. Visit ferrindino.com for more information on their products.
Bridgmont Farm
71 Chesterfield Rd., Westhampton
Bridgmont Farm has been in the Hilltowns since 1786 and sugaring over multiple centuries.
Mary Montague said to her knowledge, her husband Peter Montague’s grandfather and great-grandfather sugared.
According to their website, Mary and Peter became the 7th generation to farm the land when they purchased it from Peter’s grandfather in 1976.
Mary explained that preparation for the season depends on the weather, it is ideal to wait for days to get warmer and the nights to stay cool so the sap will go back down in the tree and if it warms up during the day, it comes back up.
To prepare their land for the season, they clean the sugar house, bring wood into the sugar house, clean everything to make sure there is no dust or anything of that sort. Bridgmont uses pipelines to gather their sap so they put out their gathering tanks, drill holes into the trees to put the tabs and pipeline in.
Mary shared that with pipeline it is a lot easier because instead of someone having to collect the sap as soon as it runs, they can check every day or two to make sure there are no holes or no animals have disturbed the lines. She also said that it is more efficient and cleaner to do it this way because no bugs or debris get inside since it is a closed-off process and not open like buckets.
When it comes to expectations for the sugaring season, Mary said, “you get what you get. There are no guarantees.”
“You never know. It depends on the weather, we need those cool nights and warm days. If it gets too warm it stops and buds start to come out on the trees and it is done. We hope for about six weeks of it. Usually, about the first of April we are at the point where we want to finish up because the buds are going to come out on the trees,” Mary added.
If this year is a good year for sugaring, Bridgmont Farm will produce 100 gallons of maple syrup, if not more. If it is a bad year, they will get a little less.
“We are small; we are just family. We do not hire any extra help, our children and grandchildren help out. It is just a tradition with us to do it,” Mary said.
Due to the pandemic, maple syrup will be sold by appointment only. Customers can contact the store at 527-6193 to place an order. Prices range from $7 to $58.
All year round, Bridgmont Farm also sells grass-fed beef. Because of the pandemic you also have to call to place an order and receive an appointment.
Visit www.bridgmontfarm.com for more information.
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