Warm winter means less maple syrup, but with a few twists as festivals return

Winter's freakish warmth made for a somewhat skimpy maple sugar season, but it still produced mysteries.

One sugar maple tree at Bendix Woods County Park in New Carlisle gave zero sap to boil into sweet syrup for this weekend’s Sugar Camp Days. The tree next to it gave a whopping five gallons of sap in a day. There’s no clue as to why.

“Trees are individuals, they behave differently,” says naturalist Hannah Branchick, who manages the sugar bush operations at Bendix Woods.

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Several factors affect how much sap the trees produce, from moisture to soil types. In this case, Branchick says, the stingy, sapless tree is perfectly healthy with unbroken branches and a full crown of leaves when it's leafed out.

There are many things about maple trees that scientists still don’t understand, Branchick emphasizes.

On Monday, March 4, the taps at Bendix Woods stopped running for the week. Temperatures had surged. But the nighttime temperatures likewise stopped dipping below freezing. Trees need freeze-thaw cycles to create the hydraulics that pump out the sap. Gases inside of the tree expand and contract with the temperatures, causing the sap to run up and down the tree. As the sap descends, it seeps out through cracks in its bark and through the taps that sugar farmers set in the tree.

But, by late last week, Branchick said, she and other sugar bush managers in the region couldn’t predict if the sap would run again when freezing nights returned for the weekend. They've seen dry spells before, but there's no consistent way of saying whether the trees will ooze sap again.

Bendix Woods’ sugar maples haven’t yet shown the definite sign that they’re done for the sugar season. That is, their buds haven’t begun to swell. When that happens, the tree starts using sap to feed its buds and — sorry humans — the sap turns bitter. They usually swell in mid to late March, but lots of spring things are emerging early this year.

Buds on the silver maples at Bendix Woods have started to swell, she said, but they tend to be earlier than sugar maples. (By the way, you can make syrup from the sap of silver maples and certain other trees, though it may not be as productive.)

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Some growers have pulled their maple taps for the season, while others believe they still have a chance to produce more syrup.

The recent warmth likely played a role in maple syrup production at Bendix Woods that, so far, hasn’t been this low in “quite a few years,” Branchick says. At 45 gallons of syrup as of March 8, it's lower than the average of 60 to 70 gallons in a season.

Production in the last two seasons have been relatively low, too. This year, the park set tapping day on Feb. 10, a week earlier than usual to match a warming trend in the weather. That’s when the public comes to help set taps and when the park starts to collect sap. Sure enough, that helped to produce an extra 15 gallons of syrup. Remember that roughly 40 gallons of sap, give or take, are boiled down to produce one gallon of syrup.

There were a “lot of stops and starts” to the sap runs, Branchick says, adding, “When it should have been a good day, it was just OK for the sap flow.”

It has been the same story at Maple Wood Nature Center in LaGrange, Ind., where Maple Syrup Days return this weekend. The taps there stopped any significant runs on Feb. 27. And the park had tapped trees almost two weeks earlier than usual, on Feb. 5, though the temperatures were right for tapping even earlier than that, parks Superintendent George DeWald, who runs the sugar bush, says. Still, it has produced only about 75 gallons of syrup, compared with an average of 90 to 91 gallons in the recent couple of years.

He doubted that last weekend’s freeze would spur a good flow because taps generally begin the process of healing — that is, closing up — three weeks after they’ve been drilled. That can go faster, he says, if it’s warmer outside and if the tap has more bacteria in it. The park runs 475 taps on buckets. More advanced growers with vacuum systems and tubes hooked up to the taps can go much longer, he says, because they can keep the holes open longer.

If the Maple Wood taps do leak some sap this week, he says, the park will cook it up for the festival’s demonstrations, but it likely would have poor sugar content because it’s late in the season.

“They make that sugar for themselves,” he says of maple trees. “Once they start to wake up, they’re going to use that sugar for their own.”

"Super fast" is how the season went at Maple Wood Sugarhouse in Jones, which quit making sugar last week when their sap turned slimy and sludgy, like "snot," says Christy Olson, who owns the business with her husband. That usually means it tastes funny, too. In more than 10 years of holding their maple fest, she says, they've never had one without some sap still flowing.

Regardless, you’ll still see the maple sugar demonstrations at the local maple festivals, though it may be water that they’re boiling instead of sap. And yes, there’s always enough local syrup to eat and buy at each fest.

Maple madness

∎ Sugar Camp Days at Bendix Woods County Park: On Timothy Road south of Indiana 2 and eight miles west of the U.S. 31 bypass, New Carlisle. 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 16-17. Lions Club pancake and sausage breakfast from 8 a.m. to noon both days; $9 per person, $5 for ages 6-12, free for ages 5 and younger. Admission is $8 per vehicle. With demonstrations of modern and traditional ways of making syrup, walking tours of the sugar bush, cooking demonstrations with maple syrup (10 a.m. to noon), horse-drawn wagon rides, blacksmith demonstrations, ice carvings, historical crafters, live music in the nature center (12:30 to 2:30 p.m.) and sales of foods made with maple syrup, including kettle corn, cotton candy, hot dogs and baked goods. (sjcparks.org, 574-654-3155)

∎ Maple Wood Nature Center: 4550 E. County Road 100 South, LaGrange, Ind. 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 16-17. Lions Club pancake breakfast from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; cost is $10 per person and $5 for ages 4-10. Free tours of sugar shack, horse-drawn wagon rides and Roz Puppets shows all day. Free admission. Park on County Road 100 South and take free shuttle bus into park. (lagrangecountyparks.org, 260-854-2225)

∎ Maple Row Sugarhouse: 12646 Born St., Jones. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays March 16-17 and March 23-24. With sugar house tours, pancake and sausage breakfast, maple breakfast and lunch, petting farm, living history re-enactment, French colonial sugar camp, Civil War camp (March 16-17), music (Slim Hartman from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 16) and kids activities. There also will be contests, demonstrations and wagon rides. Free admission. (michiganmaplefestival.com, 269-350-3553)

∎ Potato Creek tapping: See historical photos of the sugar camp that once was at Potato Creek State Park in North Liberty and learn how to tap your own maple trees at 2 p.m. March 16 at Potato Creek’s nature center.

Go green for spring

∎ River cleanup: Help to pick up litter near the St. Joseph River from 9 to 11 a.m. March 16. Meet at the Pinhook Park Community Center, 2801 Riverside Drive, South Bend. All supplies will be provided by organizers with the Citizens Climate Lobby. Wear long pants and sturdy shoes.

∎ Runnin’ With the Irish 5K: Walk or run this annual 5K race on park roads in Indiana Dunes State Park from 8:30 to 11 a.m. CDT March 16. Cost is $30. There’s also a half-mile kids fun run for $10. This benefits St. Patrick School in Chesterton. Register and find details at runsignup.com.

∎ St. Patrick’s scavenger hunt: For St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, follow a list of clues as you seek golden shamrocks hidden at Ox Bow County Park, 23033 County Road 45 in Goshen. Those who find at least one shamrock and post a selfie photo on the Elkhart County Parks Facebook or Instagram pages will be eligible for a prize package. The contest will run from 2 to 5 p.m. Find the rules at elkhartcountyparks.org.

∎ Signs of Spring Hike: Do a self-guided hike with a scavenger hunt to win park prizes from 9 to 11 a.m. March 23 at St. Patrick’s County Park, 50651 Laurel Road, South Bend. Enjoy light refreshments afterwards. Cost is $5. Register by March 15 at 574-654-3155.

∎ Sky Dance of the Woodcock: Meet with a park naturalist before sunset March 23 as you learn about the bird American woodcock at the ND-LEEF property at St. Patrick’s County Park in South Bend. Then take a short, quiet walk to the woodcock’s staging area to observe it perform a mating ritual that involves a spiraling sky dance. The program will run from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Cost is $5. Register by March 19 at 574-654-3155.

∎ Wilderness first responder course: The Dunes Learning Center in Chesterton will host a Wilderness First Responder certification course from March 25 to 29, designed for those who must be able to handle emergencies in remote locations. This includes professional guides, trip leaders, search and rescue team members, and outdoor enthusiasts. The hands-on course costs $999 for the program and meals or $1,199 if you add overnight lodging. Learn more at www.duneslearningcenter.org/wfr.

Bicycle season

∎ Melting Mann race: Grind away March 23 on dirt and paved roads, including the notoriously hilly Mann Road, for 24, 35 or 60 miles out of Swiss Valley Ski & Snowboard Area in Jones. Cost is $80. Details are at meltingmann.com.

∎ Bike swap meet: The annual bike swap meet returns from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 24 in the big red barn at St. Patrick’s County Park, 50651 Laurel Road, South Bend.

Find columnist Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures or 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Maple syrup flows less in trees at festivals at Bendix Woods LaGrange