Maple syrup season underway in Waterloo region

With the slightly warmer weather in mid-February, some maple syrup producers in Waterloo region have started tapping their trees.

But there aren't many buckets attached to trees in sugar bushes in the region. Instead, you'll see plastic lines going from tree to tree.

"With the pipeline system, most of those pipelines are in the forest all year round. It allows producers to do maintenance work ahead of the season and then basically when the season gets started, which it has, you just go around the you tap your trees then," said Kevin Snyder, president of the Waterloo Wellington chapter of the Ontario Maple Producers.

He says the sap they're getting from the trees was produced last summer, so they're harvesting the stored sugar.

Ideal weather for maple syrup production is a freezing-thawing cycle, with temperatures dipping to -5 C overnight and reaching a daytime high of 5 C.

"A snowstorm, similar to what we're having now, is always nice because it resets the trees so they think it's wintertime, and we can get more sap out of the tree, prolong the season," he said at his farm, Snyder Heritage Farms, on Friday morning.

What they don't want is for warmer temperatures to show up too soon, because that can bring the season to an end.

Buying local syrup helps local farmers

There are about 140 members of the local chapter of the maple producers, but he says there are lots of people doing backyard syrup production with just 10 trees. 

The taste of local maple syrup will be different than from other regions, Snyder says.

"Everyone wants to know where their food source is coming from," he said. "Even five or 10 km away, you can find local maple syrup and then you get to know exactly where it comes from and who produced it and support the local guys."

He adds that maple syrup from Waterloo region does have a slightly different taste than syrup from other areas.

"Different types of trees will produce a little different flavour. What I believe is soil type has a lot to do with what reflects in the quality of the syrup or the taste of the syrup," he said.

He says maple syrup is like wine, where producers will say their grapes and wine will taste different based on terroir, or different environmental factors that can impact a local crop.

Maple producers gathered on Friday at Schmidt's Family Syrup near Wellesley for the annual first tree tapping ceremony.

They're also looking forward to the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival on April 4, as well as Maple Weekend, which runs April 4 and 5 and sees a number of producers in Waterloo region open their farms for sugar bush and sugar shack tours.