Thanks to Les Ober for contributing his annual state of the maple season address. I also wanted to note the following: Due to disruptions in federal weather/climate data as well as some OSU personnel transitions, the Growing Degree Days calendar was a bit glitchy throughout the season. Folks are working hard to ensure the GDD tracker is back up and running efficiently just as soon as possible.
It was another unusual maple season across Ohio. Unlike the last few years when the season started in January, this year Mother Nature flipped the script. Ohio was really stuck in the middle as far as weather was concerned. While northeast Ohio was on the cold side, central and southern Ohio benefited from warm air occasionally pushing up from the Gulf. This gave producers in the mid-region of the state an extra week or two of very favorable maple production weather, and in most cases, resulted in above normal production. After a very cold January and February, most Northeast Ohio producers started tapping at the end of February or first week in March. Southern and central Ohio started tapping a few weeks earlier from first of February until around Valentine’s Day. No matter which part of Ohio you examine, tapping was 3-4 weeks later than previous years kicking off a short but productive season.
A productive season was a blessing, considering the poor seasons that many producers experienced in the past 2 years. For Northeast Ohio producers, the season held out until the third week of March due to a late influx of cold air that barely overcame a couple of warm spells. Many Northeast Ohio producers managed to pull out a full month’s production, overcoming the unusual swings in temperature. When you have extreme changes in weather, you often experience large volumes of sap coming in at one time. The Ray Gingerich family at Deer Run Maple in Colebrook, Ohio, reported an average crop for the season. Dan Gingerich said that they made over 70% of their crop in 2 weeks. As another example, the Ohio State-Mansfield sugarbush boasted its second-best year of syrup production in just 17 days from tapping until the lines were closed. This proves what my father told me many times, “You can make a lot of syrup in two weeks.”
Ohio consumers will not have to worry about a shortage of pure Ohio Maple Syrup in 2025. The syrup tended to be a little darker than last year, but the flavor has been very good. Last year the Brix level of the sap was low, 1.5 % in many woods. This year Brix was higher, around 2 percent, and that helped improve the yield per tap. Most stores and shops throughout the state are stocked up with a variety of maple products. The popularity of Maple Value-Added products continues to grow. This includes flavor infused Bourbon, Vanilla, and Cinnamon syrups. Although the Value-Added products are made with Pure Maple Syrup, remember they cannot be sold as pure maple syrup because of the added flavor. In fact, there is now a separate class at local, state, and regional syrup contests for judging these products. The most popular has been Bourbon Barrel Aged Syrup which is not infused but rather aged in Burbon barrels which enhances the flavor of maple syrup with the taste of aged Bourbon. Many Ohio producers have mastered the art of maple syrup flavor enhancement and are now including them in their product line.
In the Eastern States after a late start, fighting heavy snow, and extremely cold weather, the season is shaping up to be average to slightly above average. The 2025 season is just now wrapping up for New York and the New England producers except for the furthest north sugarbushes. It has been a mixed bag in southern New England, and parts of Michigan and Wisconsin suffered catastrophic ice storms that hurt this year’s production and wreaked havoc that will be felt for years to come. The real surprise was the Mid-Atlantic States in places like West Virginia that benefited from the unusual weather patterns. While most were frozen solid, they had enough warmth to keep the sap running but not so much warm temperatures that sanitation suffered. The result was an excellent crop.
All and all, what started out looking like a busted season, ended up being average or slightly above. Over the last five years, Ohio maple producers have learned how to adapt to the weather. In a way, it was good to see a more traditional winter. This is something we have not experienced in a long time.