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Despite worries about how last year’s drought would affect maple syrup production this spring, producers in Nova Scotia say the season is off to a good start so far.
Peter MacLean has been producing maple syrup at his farm on Dalhousie Mountain in Pictou County west of New Glasgow, N.S., since 1992.
MacLean said the sap started running about a week or two ago, and he has already boiled three times.
“We’ve had excellent runs,” he said. “The last two runs were probably two of the biggest runs we’ve had.… It ran hard and ran fast for a while.”
Some producers in the region were concerned that depleted groundwater levels due to the drought could affect this year’s yield. The dry conditions caused some farmers’ crops to wither or have diminished yield and quality.
As of the end of February, much of Nova Scotia was still considered to be in a moderate to severe drought — perhaps counterintuitively, considering the snowy winter.
Paul MacKenzie owns Highland Gold Maple Products in the Boisdale Hills of Cape Breton, near Sydney.
He said theoretically, drought conditions “could have a huge effect” on maple syrup production, since the lack of water decreases the photosynthesis taking place in a tree and therefore the amount of sugar it produces.
However, like MacLean, MacKenzie said the runs have been going “pretty good” this year.
“I don’t want to say that it’s going to be a great year, a medium year or a poor year because we really don’t know until the end of the season. But so far we’ve been having little warm-ups, they’ve been really warm and then we get right back to winter again,” MacKenzie said.
“So it’s been working out. So far so good.”
Over at Maple Mist Farm in Kemptown, employee Danny MacLeod said crews are about a third of the way through the season, with their first boil having taken place on March 9.
“We’ve had optimal conditions since around the beginning of March,” MacLeod said, referring to the freeze-thaw cycle of warmer days and cooler nights that gets the sap flowing.
He said maple trees can be somewhat resilient in stressful conditions. Trees don’t put out all their sugar every year, but rather keep some in reserve, so the sugar produced is an accumulation of the sugar over the past four or five years, MacLeod said.
“So they can weather a drought or extreme conditions for a year or two and you don’t really see any difference in it in the following year.… By holding something in reserve they kind of protect themselves from harsh conditions.”
MacLeod said he hasn’t seen any drastic changes in the sap flow or the quality of syrup this year.
Back near Dalhousie Mountain, MacLean said although the start of the season has been good, the forecast in his area over the next 10 days isn’t looking optimal, with temperatures not anticipated to get very warm during the day.
“There’s lots of time yet, but it’s gotta happen pretty soon,” MacLean said.
Like many farmers who live by the whims of the weather, he is somewhat resigned to accepting whatever comes his way.
“There’s nothing we’re going to do about it,” he said with a chuckle. “Out of my control.”
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