Brandywine students taste sap as it drips out of a tap on a maple tree Thursday at Bendix Woods County Park. SBT Photo/ROBERT FRANKLIN
Maple syrup could be in short supply in Indiana and other parts of the Midwest this year unless the flow of sap picks up.
The prospects appear to signal lower income for producers and less product for consumers.
Many producers like Larry Yoder, of Goshen, and Tom Cook, of Niles, speculate the near record cold February and extended winter has something to do with it.
It was the latest start to the season many tree tappers can recall, but now that the temperatures have become more favorable, trees are still not producing like they should.
“Maple syrup-makers are just scratching their heads,” said Yoder.
Yoder, whose family has tapped maple trees for more than a century, estimated the amount of sap his 225 trees have given is down 80 percent, the lowest he can recall. He’s in his 70s and has tapped trees since he was child.
Taps are usually set in the trees by mid- to late-February. Yoder said it wasn’t until the first weekend in March this year when all of his trees were tapped. Cook didn’t start tapping his 400 trees until the following week.
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