The Official U.S. Maple Syrup Almanac -- 2017 Alamanc_2017 | Page 6

OFFICIAL UNITED STATES
T
H
E
Maple Syrup
Almanac
2017
5TH EDITION
HIGHLIGHTS SEASON
OF
THE
2017 maple industry at a glance. What people were talking about …
WYOMING,
R.I. sugarmaker
Gibby Fountain
of Spring Hill
Sugarhouse
boils on January
18. It was
already his
third boil of the
season by that
date. Many of
his neighbors
were already
well into their
season in mid-
January as well.
PUBLISHED BY
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www.themaplenews.com
518-692-2204
518-692-2205 fax
USPS Number: 023-272
ISSN: 1930-2258
PUBLISHER
Peter Gregg
pgregg@
themaplenews.com
ACCOUNT MANAGER
Kate Ziehm
kziehm@
themaplenews.com
DESIGNER
Michael Apuan
CONTRIBUTORS
Betty Ann Lockhart
Don Lockhart
Paul Post
Deborah Jeanne
Sergeant
Blair Smith, NASS/USDA
ON THE COVER:
The sugarhouse at
Pingree Maple Products
of Cornish, Maine during
a boil on March 26, 2017.
The Official U.S. Maple
Syrup Almanac comes free
with a subscription to
The Maple News.
©Atticus
Communications, Inc.
6
January boilers
Sugarmakers across the Maple Belt were getting tapped early in 2017, with big payoffs. Some of
the biggest runs of the season were in mid-January and all through February. Producers were bet-
ting that there would be big runs, with fresh cold sap, in the early part of the season instead of
the latter, with a better chance of making table grades with the early stuff instead of commercial
grades with the later stuff.
Bourbon barrel
syrup takes off
Sugarmakers are getting smarter and
more creative in finding niche markets
for syrup. Aging syrup in used bour-
bon barrels has suddenly become a
thing, fetching insane prices. Nathan
Bissell of Jeffersonville, Ohio has
become the bourbon barrel guru, con-
verting an old General Electric factory
into a barrel aging facility. He lends his
expertise to other sugarmakers and has
become a barrel dealer. Now across the
maple belt, sugarmakers are trying their
luck at aging their syrup and getting a
better price for their syrup.
U.S. Maple Syrup Almanac
2017