Hopkins speaks with WABI about sap season

Kathy Hopkins, a maple syrup expert with University of Maine Cooperative Extension, spoke with WABI (Channel 5) about the start of sap season. “You can’t hurry Mother Nature,” Hopkins said. “The sap doesn’t really start to run until the temperatures during the day are 40 or 45, and you need the temperature to go down below freezing at night. That’s what stimulates the sap to flow in the trees.” That’s one reason the season hasn’t really started and most of Maine’s approximately 450 licensed maple syrup producers are waiting to begin operations, according to WABI. “A few producers have made a small amount of syrup. It’s mostly down in the southern part of the state, but most people are still waiting,” Hopkins said. “I think that the sap season will be quite good. I think that there will be a lot of syrup made, and I think it’ll be a great year.”