It’s early March and that, traditionally, has meant it’s maple syrup time.
But there’s a growing sense in the industry that climate change is impacting production of the iconic Canadian product.
Two local producers who spoke to us, agreed that late winter weather is less predictable than it once was, making it tougher to find the perfect timing to tap trees.
Jody Peters, of Paradise Maple Products, says his trees are not producing sap yet.
“Now, I’ve got my trails groomed, ready to go, but the snow is too deep,” he says. “What I predict is that we’ll start later compared to the last couple years. But climate change has thrown the old norm right out the window. We can’t count on it as much as we used to.”
Another producer, Cameron Lavender, of Lavender Family Maple Goodness, also says his trees aren’t producing much sap yet due to the cold, but he expects to be boiling some syrup by next week.
“My thinking is that this time next week, I’ll be doing our first run,” he says. “Some producers further south have been boiling now for a month. But if you go down around Peterborough, there’s no snow.”
As for here, “the last two weeks of March and the first two and a half weeks of April, look like they’ll be very productive.”
Lavender says that Bancroft, once considered a more northern maple syrup area, will soon be considered the southern edge of the maple syrup region, due to global warming.
Yet, he’s still optimistic about this maple syrup season, even if it comes later than other years in recent memory.
Both he and Peters believe, in due time, they’ll be making tonnes of syrup and getting their products out to customers.