TERRE HAUTE —
More seasonal, colder temperatures will hit the Wabash Valley this weekend, which is ideal weather for maple syrup production, said Keith Ruble, superintendent of the Vigo County Parks and Recreation Department.
However, Ruble voices concern that this year’s maple syrup season may be short.
“We are tapping trees about the normal time a year right now, but the weather has been so unusually warm that it has progressed things were it could be a short maple syrup season, especially if we have warm weather the next couple of weeks,” Ruble said.
“The cold spell coming in this weekend is welcome to me. We need some cold weather. The trees will respond when it warms up again,” Ruble said.
Ideal maple syrup weather is about 28 degrees in the evening, then warming 35 to 45 degrees during the day.
Maple syrup is made from sugar water tapped from maple trees, then boiled down. It takes about 500 gallons of the sugar water to make 10 gallons of maple syrup.
Ruble gauges the length of the maple syrup season on the height of daffodils.
“When daffodils get up to 10 inches to a foot tall, the sugar season is usually over,” Ruble said.
The park superintendent said he has already seen other visual signs that this year’s maple syrup season will be short-lived. Those signs are in spring wildflowers.
“Spring Beauty is already starting to come out and I have already witnessed Harbinger-of-spring blooming in the woods,” Ruble said. “That is the first wild flower to bloom,” he said.
In addition, when the buds on maple trees swell, “the sugars in the trees go to carbohydrates and the sap is no good any more. If we get an extended warm period in the next couple of weeks, sugar season is going to be short,” Ruble said.
Last year, park employees made more than 200 gallons of maple syrup from about 1,000 maple trees tapped in Prairie Creek Park, located 11 miles south of Interstate 70 off of U.S. 41.
In addition, last year was the first year a new reverse osmosis system was used to improve the park’s maple syrup production. It includes a new vacuum system for plastic lines that pumps the sugar water to a 2,000-gallon stainless steel insulated storage tank. In ideal weather conditions, that system could make 400 to 600 gallons of maple syrup.
Ruble said more traditional buckets, hung along side a tree, are also being used this year to collect the sugar water.
Maple syrup is featured annually during the park’s pancake breakfast at Fowler Park. The breakfast requires a minimum of 30 gallons of maple syrup, Ruble said, however much more is sold at the breakfast to generate revenue for the park department. This year’s breakfast will be held Feb. 18 and Feb. 19.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
Local & Bistate
Related Photos
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Tapping into sweetness: Vigo County Parks and Recreation Department employee Henry Voges taps into a maple tree at Prairie Creek Park Thursday.
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza To the last drop: Vigo County Parks and Recreation Department employee Henry Voges pours sugar water from a maple tree into a large container Thursday at Prairie Creek Park.
Discussion
Slow drips: It’s maple syrup season in Indiana
Warm weather may make for short harvest season
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