Cold Weather Delaying Start of Conn. Maple Season

The polar vortex has some Connecticut maple-syrup producers vexed.

The maple-syrup season, normally well underway in Connecticut by now, has been delayed as colder-than-normal daytime temperatures in January and February have kept the sap from running in the sugar maples.

Many producers didn’t start tapping trees until this past weekend, when daytime temperatures allowed the sap to flow.

Mark Harran, the president of the Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut, says the usual six-to-eight-week season may only last a month this year.

But that will all depend on how many days the temperatures are in the 40s during the day and below freezing at night, the conditions needed to produce good sap.

Harran says he and other sugar producers are hoping for a late spring.