NEW HAMBURG – An end of February snow storm didn’t stop the Waterloo-Wellington Maple Syrup Producers from holding the ceremonial first tree tapping of the season.
On Feb. 28 more than 50 people, according to past Waterloo-Wellington Maple Syrup Producers president Terry Hoover, attended the Schmidt’s Family Syrup in New Hamburg for the yearly tapping ceremony.
At the event it was announced that Hoover’s Maple Syrup won the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival Producer of the Year award.
“It was competing and the camaraderie of all your peers that meant the world to me,” Hoover said in a phone interview.
“Being there with everybody … last year I congratulated them and of course now this year they congratulate me.
“I mean no hard feelings but it was just great having all your peers surrounding you and being able to win. That was like a feather in the cap.”
This was the first year that Hoover’s Maple Syrup entered the contest.
“We had two professional judges in to do the contest and (Hoover’s Maple Syrup) stood out to them that their syrup was the best, best embodied what they were looking for in amber maple syrup,” said festival volunteer in charge of the contest Greg Bedard in a phone interview.
The Hoovers, Terry and his wife Diane, will supply all the maple syrup for the festival breakfast on April 4 in Elmira and it will be produced for the most part this month.
Waterloo-Wellington Maple Syrup Producers president Kevin Snyder said producers are optimistic about this year’s maple syrup season.
“Producers always want a really good crop but it’s sort of what Mother Nature will give us with the appropriate weather,” he said in a phone interview. “We need the right weather to get the sap out of the tree but we’re always optimistic that we’re going to get a good crop.
“We’ll know better once we’re done.”
He said that a mild winter shouldn’t impact this year’s syrup production.
“It just made it a little difficult when to get started because you didn’t have that true cold snap or that really cold weather,” Snyder said.
The ideal temperature range for syrup production is about minus five Celsius at night and plus five Celsius during the day.
“I like to see a snow storm or two during the season because then it just sort of resets the trees and the trees keep thinking it’s winter time and then you can keep continuing to get sap from them,” Snyder said.
To see how this year’s season went visit the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival on April 4 or visit a local producer’s sugar shack that same weekend for Maple Weekend (both April 4 and 5).
For information about the festival visit https://www.elmiramaplesyrup.com.
For information about Maple Weekend visit https://mapleweekend.ca.
