March 16, 2024 • 12 mins
Among all the foods that are quintessentially "New England", maple syrup is close to the top! We're in sugaring season right now, and it doesn't last too long - just a matter of weeks. Farmers, sugar house owners, and hobbyists are working long hours to try and make the most of what the trees choose to provide this year. Melissa Leab of Ioka Valley Farm in Hancock is also a member of the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association, and she joins Nichole this week to talk about the sugaring process, how this year's warm weather is impacting the product, and how you can celebrate Maple Weekend at sugar shacks around the Commonwealth.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston.This is New England Weekend. Each week
we come together talk about all thetopics important to you and the place where
you live. As always, sohappy to be back with you again this
week. I'm Nicole Davis. Ithink we can agree that there are some
foods that are just quintessentially New England. Clam chowder, Parker house rolls,
lobster rolls, blueberries, anything withblueberries, of those Jordan Marsh muffins from
(00:31):
back in the day, brown breatnacan. But this is that time of
year where we embrace maple syrup,everything sugary and sweet, all sorts of
different meals, breakfast straight up tothat overnight snack. Now, the sugaring
season around here does not last long. It's only a few weeks and it
can be a frantic rush for thesugar houses to get out there, tap
all the sap and boil down asmuch as possible. Since the mid nineteen
(00:54):
forties, the mass and Maple ProducersAssociation has been working out there with the
owners of the sugar houses, withfarmers hobbyists to trying to make the most
out of their season. So let'stalk about maple season right now. Melissa
Leap from mass Maple is here.Melissa, great to have you on the
show. It's hard to ignore thefact that it's been really warm lately for
this time of year. Give usa bit more of an indication of how
(01:15):
that's impacting the season. We haveseen an earlier start for more sugar makers
this season. More sugar makers digit out there and we're watching the weather,
and did get some taps in soonerthan they normally would tap in,
not necessarily following the traditional calendar marks, so they were really weather watchers and
(01:38):
that has provided us with an earlystart and jump on the sugar season and
produced quite a bit of sert tostart with. This warmer weather's going to
be tricky. I've gotten a coupleof updates from out in the eastern part
of the state that they have stopped, their trees, stopped flowing, or
(02:00):
they decided it was time to taketheir buckets in. So I'm starting to
hear that some of those producers havestopped, but I have not heard of
anybody else out in the western partnecessarily calling it yet. Although this warmer
weather means you need to process yoursap quicker, it won't hold as long
(02:20):
as when it's colder. Okay,Yeah. The process of putting together maple
syrup or just boiling everything down,making that maple sugar candy which I could
probably eat for like six days andnot ever get tired of. It's a
process at the sugar house. Sogive us a little bit of a rundown
for people who might not know howintensive. This is how it all works.
So we'll keep it to the basics. Yes, you need your Yeah,
(02:42):
you need your maple trees. Andthe maple trees need to be about
ten inches in diameter, which makesthem about forty years old before we begin
tapping them, and we collect theSAP from those trees from the first thaw,
so as early as the January thaw, SAP would be running in trees
all the way until bud break.Once the buds break, the flavor profile
(03:06):
changes dramatically and it naturally ends ourseason. So as sugar makers, we
try to capture when we think mostof those thawing days and freezing nights are
going to happen, so we cancollect as much of that SAP as possible.
Once the SAP is collected, weneed approximately forty to fifty gallons of
(03:28):
that sap to be boiled down intoone gallon of maple syrup. So it's
a forty to fifty gallon to oneratio and you can boil it just as
I said, put it in apot and boil it. Or with modern
technology, we've been able to utilizereverse osmosis, steampans and preheaters to help
(03:51):
make that process more efficient, especiallythe more sap you have. My goodness,
So those bottles of maple syrup weget at the store think, oh,
they're a little expensive, but there'sreasons for that. There's so much
work and so much SAP that goesinto these Yes, it's definitely a labor
of love. For most people.It starts off as a hobby. Some
(04:13):
keep it at that, and othersrun with it and just get completely immersed
into that whole spring process and reallymake it a true business and still a
passion of the farming and agricultural timeof year. Yeah, I mean,
you're essentially dictated by the weather,as you mentioned, and so I mean
you could probably have nights where you'reup all night just getting the sap boiled
(04:38):
down and trying to take advantage ofthe moment, and then I'm sure there's
days where you're not doing much atall. So on the days that we
don't give above freezing, we won'tsee a lot of sat flow or any
at all. Those are the daysthat we are cleaning and canning, checking
things in the woods, checking onour trees, making any repairs that are
needed. So quiet in the senseof not staying up all night, yes,
(05:00):
most likely, but still a lotof work to be had on those
days that we would call a catchupday. Okay, So how long is
the season? Generally about a month, maybe two. It can be as
short as three weeks and as longas twelve. Some of us again across
the state did start tapping in Januaryand had our first couple of boils in
(05:23):
the month of January, and we'restill boiling now and hopefully we get another
week or two out of it.We'll see what mother nature does and when
those trees actually break bud. Okay, you know, you know, when
I go to sugar house or whenI go to a local farm and buy
some maple syrup, I've always wantedto know about this, and maybe you
can help me out. What arethe different grades of syrup? What is
(05:44):
the difference between this When I'm goingin and I'm buying some syrup, so
flavor and color, and it's dueto the timing of the season. So
traditionally, when we start making maplesyrup, it's the colder end of the
season, the trees are just awakeningfrom being in a state of door.
Parmacy will produce the lighter color andthe lighter flavor called golden. It's the
(06:04):
sweetest and flavor with a very delicatemaple flavor, typically used for the maple
candies and maple creams. That sweetmaple flavor. As the season progresses,
mother nature naturally darkens the color,bringing more maple flavor each step of the
way and gradually less sweet. Sothe next would be amber, which is
(06:27):
the middle of the road, anice balance of maple and sweetness with a
rich maple taste that tends to bea very popular grade for the pancake use.
And then again moving on to thenext would be the dark robust color.
Robust, dark color, robust flavorthat still has a nice sweet flavor,
but not as sweet as the previoustwo, but a much bolder maple
(06:50):
flavor. Really good for baking andcooking, it brings out a maple flavor
and competes with your barbecue sauces andyour marinades. And then it'll continue to
get darker to the very dark,very strong flavor. And that's as the
trees again are getting warmer and closerto bud breaks. So between the warmer
temperatures and the chemistry in the tree, we get this very strong flavor that's
(07:15):
also a very popular cooking grade anda processing grade for your meats and your
sausages. And still there's some peoplethat prefer that on their pancakes. So
as far as what everybody would useit for, it is all personal preference.
I just gave you a typical scenarioof uses and guidelines on comparing the
(07:38):
flavor profiles. And then once thebuds break on the trees, it'll become
a very bitter flavor. So thatnaturally will end our season and it is
no longer that maple profile we alllook for. Okay, that's good to
know. How many gallons of syrupdo we normally see out of our sugar
houses here in Massachusetts each year.I mean, obviously you don't know exactly,
(08:00):
nobody could, but a good guessTomate. We're estimating that we're producing
about seventy thousand gallons of maple syrupacross the state among about three hundred maple
producers, again from small hobbyists tosomewhat larger producers from one end of the
state to the other. We haveplenty of other states around, like Vermont
and New Hampshire and Maine who havethis happening as well, But that's a
(08:22):
pretty decent output for Massachusetts. Andwhere would you say most of our sugar
houses are located Worcester County, Easternand Western Mass. Western Mass is the
heavier populated, so your Franklin Countyis very populated. We do have a
few out in the wors County areaas well, but it's definitely a Western
(08:43):
Mass heavy population for the majority ofthe producers. And on our mass Maple
website, you can go look atthe directory and there's a map that actually
will map out where everybody is,so it's a nice way to see lotions
of where sugar houses are. Yeah. Yeah, this website is great.
(09:03):
You get to learn much more thanwe can get into here in the interview
about how to make maple syrup.You can learn how to cook with it.
I mean, the recipes here arejust an incredible What is your favorite
recipe? By the way, withthe maple syrup, we have found that
our maple lemonade is a really funone because it's unique. It catches people's
attention, and you never think abouthow simple it is to use maple syrup
(09:26):
in place of sugar. So that'sone of the easiest ways to show it
and it's kind of a neat treatall year long. But otherwise for recipes,
the maple salmon is a great oneas well, very nice. So
Maple Weekend is this weekend March sixteenththrough seventeenth. Obviously the sugar houses are
going to stay open here for anothercouple weeks or so, but talk about
(09:48):
Maple Weekend and why it's so important. So we have over thirty sugar houses
signed up to be open for gueststo come and check out the maple operations
across the state. It's a greatopportunity to know your farmer, know your
food kind of feel, get theopportunity to watch the process. If they're
(10:09):
able to be live boiling at thetime of your visits. Sometimes they're doing
demonstrations of other products being made andor just the sampling and tasting of the
products as well. So it's areally really nice opportunity to go and really
see where maple syrup is made,learn that whole process, and hopefully take
(10:31):
home a treat or two with youto bring home to the household and share
with family and friends. Oh ofcourse. And you know, especially with
all the flooding that the farming industryhas had to deal with over the past
year or so, anything we cando to help our local farms is definitely
a boost. And a lot ofmaple producers are diversified into other pieces of
agriculture, so supporting your maple produceris supporting the agriculture across the state in
(10:56):
many different levels. Yes, forsure. Do you want to talk about
what's happening. Is your farm takingpart in Maple Weekend? If so,
I'd love to hear about what you'vegot to offer as well. Oh well,
thank you. Yes, So weare open. Our farm is Ioka
Valley Farm. We are on thewestern edge of the state, so we
are probably one of the farthest westones. There's a couple right here in
(11:16):
our neighborhood as well that are goingto be open too. So we do
the traditional pancake breakfast also, sowe have a cafe open for pancakes,
and we'll have the sugar house openfor tours and tastings. And during the
Maple Weekend we usually bring in afew extra recipes to try. This weekend
we will be doing our meatballs withour maple barbecue sauce and maple popcorn.
(11:41):
Is a couple of additional recipes toshare and try. Oh wow, okay,
I'm hungry already. So if peoplewant to find out more about the
Massachusetts Maple Producers Association about your farm, how can they connect so Themassmaple dot
org has hopefully everything you need tofind what you're looking for and to help
(12:01):
plan a truck on whether you choosejust one sugar house to visit or if
you're going to make a day ofit and hop around and see how many
you can get through the course ofSaturday and Sunday. All right, beautiful,
Well, Melissa, thank you somuch for your time and happy sugaring.
Thank you very much. Have asafe and healthy Saint Patrick's Day weekend,
and please join me again next weekfor another edition of the show.
(12:22):
I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ news Radioon iHeartRadio
From WBZ News Radio in Boston.This is New England Weekend. Each week
we come together talk about all thetopics important to you and the place where
you live. As always, sohappy to be back with you again this
week. I'm Nicole Davis. Ithink we can agree that there are some
foods that are just quintessentially New England. Clam chowder, Parker house rolls,
lobster rolls, blueberries, anything withblueberries, of those Jordan Marsh muffins from
(00:31):
back in the day, brown breatnacan. But this is that time of
year where we embrace maple syrup,everything sugary and sweet, all sorts of
different meals, breakfast straight up tothat overnight snack. Now, the sugaring
season around here does not last long. It's only a few weeks and it
can be a frantic rush for thesugar houses to get out there, tap
all the sap and boil down asmuch as possible. Since the mid nineteen
(00:54):
forties, the mass and Maple ProducersAssociation has been working out there with the
owners of the sugar houses, withfarmers hobbyists to trying to make the most
out of their season. So let'stalk about maple season right now. Melissa
Leap from mass Maple is here.Melissa, great to have you on the
show. It's hard to ignore thefact that it's been really warm lately for
this time of year. Give usa bit more of an indication of how
(01:15):
that's impacting the season. We haveseen an earlier start for more sugar makers
this season. More sugar makers digit out there and we're watching the weather,
and did get some taps in soonerthan they normally would tap in,
not necessarily following the traditional calendar marks, so they were really weather watchers and
(01:38):
that has provided us with an earlystart and jump on the sugar season and
produced quite a bit of sert tostart with. This warmer weather's going to
be tricky. I've gotten a coupleof updates from out in the eastern part
of the state that they have stopped, their trees, stopped flowing, or
(02:00):
they decided it was time to taketheir buckets in. So I'm starting to
hear that some of those producers havestopped, but I have not heard of
anybody else out in the western partnecessarily calling it yet. Although this warmer
weather means you need to process yoursap quicker, it won't hold as long
(02:20):
as when it's colder. Okay,Yeah. The process of putting together maple
syrup or just boiling everything down,making that maple sugar candy which I could
probably eat for like six days andnot ever get tired of. It's a
process at the sugar house. Sogive us a little bit of a rundown
for people who might not know howintensive. This is how it all works.
So we'll keep it to the basics. Yes, you need your Yeah,
(02:42):
you need your maple trees. Andthe maple trees need to be about
ten inches in diameter, which makesthem about forty years old before we begin
tapping them, and we collect theSAP from those trees from the first thaw,
so as early as the January thaw, SAP would be running in trees
all the way until bud break.Once the buds break, the flavor profile
(03:06):
changes dramatically and it naturally ends ourseason. So as sugar makers, we
try to capture when we think mostof those thawing days and freezing nights are
going to happen, so we cancollect as much of that SAP as possible.
Once the SAP is collected, weneed approximately forty to fifty gallons of
(03:28):
that sap to be boiled down intoone gallon of maple syrup. So it's
a forty to fifty gallon to oneratio and you can boil it just as
I said, put it in apot and boil it. Or with modern
technology, we've been able to utilizereverse osmosis, steampans and preheaters to help
(03:51):
make that process more efficient, especiallythe more sap you have. My goodness,
So those bottles of maple syrup weget at the store think, oh,
they're a little expensive, but there'sreasons for that. There's so much
work and so much SAP that goesinto these Yes, it's definitely a labor
of love. For most people.It starts off as a hobby. Some
(04:13):
keep it at that, and othersrun with it and just get completely immersed
into that whole spring process and reallymake it a true business and still a
passion of the farming and agricultural timeof year. Yeah, I mean,
you're essentially dictated by the weather,as you mentioned, and so I mean
you could probably have nights where you'reup all night just getting the sap boiled
(04:38):
down and trying to take advantage ofthe moment, and then I'm sure there's
days where you're not doing much atall. So on the days that we
don't give above freezing, we won'tsee a lot of sat flow or any
at all. Those are the daysthat we are cleaning and canning, checking
things in the woods, checking onour trees, making any repairs that are
needed. So quiet in the senseof not staying up all night, yes,
(05:00):
most likely, but still a lotof work to be had on those
days that we would call a catchupday. Okay, So how long is
the season? Generally about a month, maybe two. It can be as
short as three weeks and as longas twelve. Some of us again across
the state did start tapping in Januaryand had our first couple of boils in
(05:23):
the month of January, and we'restill boiling now and hopefully we get another
week or two out of it.We'll see what mother nature does and when
those trees actually break bud. Okay, you know, you know, when
I go to sugar house or whenI go to a local farm and buy
some maple syrup, I've always wantedto know about this, and maybe you
can help me out. What arethe different grades of syrup? What is
(05:44):
the difference between this When I'm goingin and I'm buying some syrup, so
flavor and color, and it's dueto the timing of the season. So
traditionally, when we start making maplesyrup, it's the colder end of the
season, the trees are just awakeningfrom being in a state of door.
Parmacy will produce the lighter color andthe lighter flavor called golden. It's the
(06:04):
sweetest and flavor with a very delicatemaple flavor, typically used for the maple
candies and maple creams. That sweetmaple flavor. As the season progresses,
mother nature naturally darkens the color,bringing more maple flavor each step of the
way and gradually less sweet. Sothe next would be amber, which is
(06:27):
the middle of the road, anice balance of maple and sweetness with a
rich maple taste that tends to bea very popular grade for the pancake use.
And then again moving on to thenext would be the dark robust color.
Robust, dark color, robust flavorthat still has a nice sweet flavor,
but not as sweet as the previoustwo, but a much bolder maple
(06:50):
flavor. Really good for baking andcooking, it brings out a maple flavor
and competes with your barbecue sauces andyour marinades. And then it'll continue to
get darker to the very dark,very strong flavor. And that's as the
trees again are getting warmer and closerto bud breaks. So between the warmer
temperatures and the chemistry in the tree, we get this very strong flavor that's
(07:15):
also a very popular cooking grade anda processing grade for your meats and your
sausages. And still there's some peoplethat prefer that on their pancakes. So
as far as what everybody would useit for, it is all personal preference.
I just gave you a typical scenarioof uses and guidelines on comparing the
(07:38):
flavor profiles. And then once thebuds break on the trees, it'll become
a very bitter flavor. So thatnaturally will end our season and it is
no longer that maple profile we alllook for. Okay, that's good to
know. How many gallons of syrupdo we normally see out of our sugar
houses here in Massachusetts each year.I mean, obviously you don't know exactly,
(08:00):
nobody could, but a good guessTomate. We're estimating that we're producing
about seventy thousand gallons of maple syrupacross the state among about three hundred maple
producers, again from small hobbyists tosomewhat larger producers from one end of the
state to the other. We haveplenty of other states around, like Vermont
and New Hampshire and Maine who havethis happening as well, But that's a
(08:22):
pretty decent output for Massachusetts. Andwhere would you say most of our sugar
houses are located Worcester County, Easternand Western Mass. Western Mass is the
heavier populated, so your Franklin Countyis very populated. We do have a
few out in the wors County areaas well, but it's definitely a Western
(08:43):
Mass heavy population for the majority ofthe producers. And on our mass Maple
website, you can go look atthe directory and there's a map that actually
will map out where everybody is,so it's a nice way to see lotions
of where sugar houses are. Yeah. Yeah, this website is great.
(09:03):
You get to learn much more thanwe can get into here in the interview
about how to make maple syrup.You can learn how to cook with it.
I mean, the recipes here arejust an incredible What is your favorite
recipe? By the way, withthe maple syrup, we have found that
our maple lemonade is a really funone because it's unique. It catches people's
attention, and you never think abouthow simple it is to use maple syrup
(09:26):
in place of sugar. So that'sone of the easiest ways to show it
and it's kind of a neat treatall year long. But otherwise for recipes,
the maple salmon is a great oneas well, very nice. So
Maple Weekend is this weekend March sixteenththrough seventeenth. Obviously the sugar houses are
going to stay open here for anothercouple weeks or so, but talk about
(09:48):
Maple Weekend and why it's so important. So we have over thirty sugar houses
signed up to be open for gueststo come and check out the maple operations
across the state. It's a greatopportunity to know your farmer, know your
food kind of feel, get theopportunity to watch the process. If they're
(10:09):
able to be live boiling at thetime of your visits. Sometimes they're doing
demonstrations of other products being made andor just the sampling and tasting of the
products as well. So it's areally really nice opportunity to go and really
see where maple syrup is made,learn that whole process, and hopefully take
(10:31):
home a treat or two with youto bring home to the household and share
with family and friends. Oh ofcourse. And you know, especially with
all the flooding that the farming industryhas had to deal with over the past
year or so, anything we cando to help our local farms is definitely
a boost. And a lot ofmaple producers are diversified into other pieces of
agriculture, so supporting your maple produceris supporting the agriculture across the state in
(10:56):
many different levels. Yes, forsure. Do you want to talk about
what's happening. Is your farm takingpart in Maple Weekend? If so,
I'd love to hear about what you'vegot to offer as well. Oh well,
thank you. Yes, So weare open. Our farm is Ioka
Valley Farm. We are on thewestern edge of the state, so we
are probably one of the farthest westones. There's a couple right here in
(11:16):
our neighborhood as well that are goingto be open too. So we do
the traditional pancake breakfast also, sowe have a cafe open for pancakes,
and we'll have the sugar house openfor tours and tastings. And during the
Maple Weekend we usually bring in afew extra recipes to try. This weekend
we will be doing our meatballs withour maple barbecue sauce and maple popcorn.
(11:41):
Is a couple of additional recipes toshare and try. Oh wow, okay,
I'm hungry already. So if peoplewant to find out more about the
Massachusetts Maple Producers Association about your farm, how can they connect so Themassmaple dot
org has hopefully everything you need tofind what you're looking for and to help
(12:01):
plan a truck on whether you choosejust one sugar house to visit or if
you're going to make a day ofit and hop around and see how many
you can get through the course ofSaturday and Sunday. All right, beautiful,
Well, Melissa, thank you somuch for your time and happy sugaring.
Thank you very much. Have asafe and healthy Saint Patrick's Day weekend,
and please join me again next weekfor another edition of the show.
(12:22):
I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ news Radioon iHeartRadio
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