With temperatures climbing, it’s crunch time for maple syrup producers around the region.
Tom Shaw is playing catch up, as the perfect mix of maple syrup weather arrived earlier than expected.
“All of a sudden it came on us quick, so the sap is starting to flow. I’m not entirely ready, but I am gathering from a 1,500 taps.”
Shaw spent a good portion of Monday drilling new holes in trees. He’s only about halfway through. It’s a race against the clock because one mistake and the flow of sap might come to a complete stop.
“Cant rush it too much. You need to do a good job of it, but we are trying to pick up the pace a bit with this warm sunshine.”
In a perfect world Shaw would like to buy more time. The only way that happens is if temperatures dip below zero at night and then pick up again during the day.
Shaw's family has been tapping and sapping trees in Oro-Medonte for more than a hundred years. He expects to produce 4,000 litres of maple syrup this season.
Greenlaws Maple Syrup in Elmvale don't have quite as many trees to sap as the Shaws, but they're still filling pales every other day.
“Huge change, super-fast and even the snow conditions have changed so much its extremely hard to get around today,” says Jarey McLaren.
At this point last year, the Greenlaws weren’t even thinking about maple syrup. They didn't have their first batch ready until the second week of March.
They say if this continues they'll have the machines up and running in the next day or two.
