Monroe County, N.Y. - Maple syrup farmers hope to make up for last year's losses this season. An unusually warm start to 2012 cut the season short by weeks.
“Last year was a disaster with temperatures in the 70s and 80s this time in March,” said Chris Schoff, owner of Schoff’s Sugar Shack in Victor. “March 12th was the last syrup that we made last year.”
In Western New York, sap usually flows until the first of April.
There are about 1000 taps that Schoff has around Victor.
He expects to make around 200 gallons of syrup each year. But if the weather this season continues to cooperate, he hopes to make more.
“I'll be producing weeks after I did last year, absolutely,” said Schoff.
A few miles away in Honeoye Falls, Gregory Keyes has been working hard to keep up with his 800 taps.
“The last few weeks we've had a lot of cold nights and a few warm days so we made a little bit of syrup,” said Keyes, “but we doubled our production in the last days, the sap began to run.”
The good harvest weather is just in time for Maple Weekend that runs March 16 and 17 and the following weekend, March 23 and 24. For more information, click here.
