With the early spring, the maple syrup season came and went early this year, and some say the season was very short. It's still not clear how much sap was collected statewide before the trees began to bud, turning sap dark and bitter.
Larry Haigh, president of the Michigan Maple Syrup Association, farms north of Battle Creek. He says he tapped a few weeks early this year, in mid-February, and he had an average season.
"I haven't heard all around the state yet on how they're doing," he says. "But I know in this area, some of the people that tapped early did very, very well.
"So I think the crop report is going to be very, very spotty all across the state."
Spotty farmer to farmer and the experience of Dick Olds, of Olds Brothers Maple Syrup in Kingsley, would bear that out.
"In 34 years of making syrup, it's the shortest season I've had," he says.
Olds tapped at the start of March and had one good week of sap collection before everything shut down, and he says reports from his neighbors who tapped earlier weren't much better.
Olds quips that he usually spills more than he made this year. In all, the sugar house boiled down just a couple thousand gallons of syrup. His production was 38,000 gallons last year.
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