BDN interviews Hopkins about Maine’s maple season
Kathy Hopkins, a maple syrup expert with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, spoke with the Bangor Daily News for an article about the start of Maine’s maple season. Fluctuating weather conditions in recent years have been keeping maple syrup producers around the state on their toes, according to Hopkins. “These days, with the weather so capricious, the maple season can begin anytime between January and late March,” she said. “It’s good for producers to be aware. To be ready. To have all of their equipment ready to go, and then you can pounce as soon as the weather is right, no matter what the calendar says. When there’s weather like we’re having now — cold nights and warm days — then you can start.” So far this winter, there already have been some good sap runs in the southern part of the state in the third week in January, she added. “It’s early,” Hopkins said. “The thing about it is that if you go back in time, back through 100 years of records, you will find early seasons and you will find late seasons. I would guess that it seems like there are more early seasons now than there used to be.”