Ask just about anybody in Vermont or northern New York when the month of March comes around, it means one thing. My favorite maple product would have to be the maple cream. Laura Parker and her husband are hard at work preparing for the 2025 maple season at the Parker family maple farm in West Shayy, New York. This feels like what everyone around here calls like an old fashioned North Country winter, so with that said, we're hoping for an old fashion. In North country maple season where we get good cycles, good runs, um, there is some concern with it being this much snow and this cold as it has been that we have been somewhat restricted on some of those nice days that we have had where we hope to get more sap, the sun's out, it's, you know, around 40 degrees. The sap hasn't quite run as much as we would like yet. I think because everything is still falling from that deep freeze and the snow being packed around the trees is. it back *** little bit, but these sunny days are helping and it'll be here soon. Sugaring has been in the Parker family for 5 generations. They've grown considerably over the years from being *** small backyard operation to now tapping at least 2000 acres spanning several miles, and with that expansion came renovating their sugar house back in 2018. Within the past 15 years, we've gone from About 13,000 taps to about 120,000 taps, so that's *** huge, huge difference, and we needed larger equipment to fit in, but we also needed to make space for all of our customers and visitors because we're very inclusive here. We love to involve the community and we love to have space for people to come and be able to enjoy all the fun things about maple season. They wouldn't be able to do all this without the help of technology. From the warmth of their sugar house, they can see which chaps are running or. Which may have problems with the click of *** mouse. The technology is very integral to our growth as *** business in this farm, as well as the whole industry worldwide nationwide, um, it's taken it from, you know, the small basically we think of the backyard type of operation, you know, and you would have to take one person to go do all of this gathering, um, whereas now with the technology we're able to monitor what's going on in the woods. So even with the modern tubing systems and everything. That's still *** lot of land to know if there's *** problem where do I go? What do I need to bring to fix it with this monitoring technology, it allows us to know more precisely where to go, what kind of problem we're gonna see and go deal with it. So we're able to allocate our employees and our time and our resources *** lot more efficiently as well as what we do here in the sugar. House, um, the evaporator behind us is pretty high tech. The process is still very simple in terms of we're just boiling down maple sap, but we can do *** much larger volume faster, more cleanly with this technology, so we definitely wouldn't be where we are today without it. From the Parker's high tech operation, which typically produces 60,000. Gallons of syrup each year to the smaller operation of Sugar Tree Maple Farm in Williston, Vermont, with about 1000 gallons expected this season. They're all anxious to see the sap flow. It's been *** very cold winter, as everybody knows, um, in my book, this is *** good old fashioned winter. This is the way they should be, um, so we just gotta wait for the weather to warm up. It's gonna take *** couple 3 days, probably of 40 degree weather before the trees will run again. Um, but it's just *** matter of waiting for that to happen. I mean, I think we're set up this year to have some good sap runs, you know, um, the trees are fully dormant because they've, they've completely froze this year, which they haven't done in in quite *** few years, so. It doesn't all come at once, but it can come fast and furious when Mother Nature is ready to give it to us. Owner Mark Yendo, like most sugar makers, keeps *** close eye on the forecast this time of year. It's *** waiting game, and although he's crossing his fingers for *** great season, you just don't know until it's over. You can't predict this, you know, we try and people want to, but really you can't predict. I, I don't know what next week's gonna bring, you know, because the weather changes. You know, you can look at the forecast and it can say it can say cold right now, but the long range forecast is unpredictable and it, it could change all of *** sudden you got 23 days in the 40s that wasn't in the, in the, in the, you know, in the long range forecast and that's how, that's how we're still *** roller coaster where it goes up and down and you just, you just never know. The changing weather patterns that we've seen over the past few winters make it tough to determine when *** season will start and how long it'll last. It's something the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association watches closely. So the, the season has both been shifting earlier for, um, much longer than the last few years and also has been getting compressed. So, you know, the vast majority of sap might come from just *** handful of really good sap runs when we can get them. Um, and in *** pretty short period of time. But for folks who tap earlier than normal, um, so we have some folks who are, um, larger producers, and so they do their sort of algebraic equation of how many trees do I have, when do I need to be fully tapped by, and that will tell them, you know, how much labor do I have, and that will tell them exactly when they need to start tapping. So, um, I think we've talked to folks who will get saprons around Christmas time, um, depending on what the weather looks like, because they have enough trees tapped to do that. Um, and we'll get folks maybe this week who, um, who might, um, have already tapped and, um, are seeing enough of those, uh, cold temperatures at night and warm temperatures at the day with like all of the other things that Mother Nature throws into it, um, that might allow for *** nice sap run. Yeah, it, it really depends. One way to support your local. Sugar maker each year is to attend Maple Open House weekends, which are coming up at the end of the month. So Maple Open House is *** great way to connect with producers around the state. So, um, sugar bakers are passionate about what they do. They love it, um, but also they're usually really good storytellers. So, um, to show up at *** sugar house and learn about the person who's making this amazing product or the family. Um, it is just *** wonderful treat. So you can hear about the equipment they use, why they use that equipment, how long they've been, um, producing maple, um, whether it came through family connections or not. Um, sometimes folks can get *** tour of the sugar bush. Um, folks offer all sorts of different kinds of food, whether it's the usual sugar on snow with donuts and *** pickle, so you get Um, all of your taste buds in line, um, or it's *** snowshoe. Some folks will have horses, waffles, um, pancake breakfast, you name it. There is so much to try and, um, getting out there and trying all of the different grades of maple syrup and seeing so many different ways to use it, um, is really delightful. And, um, and sugar makers, rightfully so, are *** proud group and so they like to share the The pride of of their work. Mark Gano at Sugar Tree Maple Farm is really looking forward to opening up his sugar house to guests. Oh, it's great. It just brings *** lot of people to the sugar house. It gives us an opportunity to meet new people and see people that we only see at that time of the year and it's uh it it it's good for uh sales, you know, we uh we we we move *** lot of product during that open house weekend so it's, so it's big and. Um, *** lot of it to me is we also build relationships with, with the consumers, the customers that come in. And we get *** chance to show them around and show them, you know, what we do and how it's done. Meeting people is the highlight of the season for the Parker family. We definitely are extra when it comes to Maple weekends and we have been for *** long time here, uh, we love to just open our doors to the community and provide many opportunities for fun and free things to do, as well as our extra delicious tasting samples that we have going. On, um, one of the most popular things is for folks to come out and take wagon rides. We have free wagon rides that take folks through the woods to see the maple trees and the taps. Um, we have free tours here in the Sugar house to learn about the process. And then we also have special tasty items here that are only for Maple weekends on our farms, such as our maple soft serve ice cream, our maple cotton candy. Um, we have donuts this year, just *** whole. *** bunch of goodies. It's always changing and we're always trying to offer something new, so some surprises are going to be in store for sure. And if you just can't wait for Maple Weekend, they've opened up their cafe every weekend for the entire month of March for an all you can eat breakfast buffet, complete with all the maple staples like pancakes, bacon, and sausage. So from 8 to 1, people can come and enjoy an all you can eat breakfast buffet right here at our farm. And our sugar house is open 7 days *** week in March, so folks are always welcome to come and visit, see what we have going on. If we're boiling, come and enjoy that process. We have our gift shop here attached to the sugar house so folks can also buy their syrup and maple products right here from the source. From tree to tap to your breakfast table, it's your chance to truly experience all it takes to get *** gallon of liquid gold.