{p dir=”ltr”}{span}The snow on the ground was crunchy and underlined with ice earlier this week as Brian Pfister drove a four-wheeler on his forest property to check on sap boiling in evaporators in his maple hut off of Harrisburg Run.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}Pfister, who lives in Foster Township near the New York state line, has been a hobby maple syrup producer for the past 10 years. Each year, he provides syrup to friends and family as well as to Sprague’s Maple Farms in Portville, N.Y.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}While some maple syrup producers have recently begun tapping lines to their trees, Pfister said he began tapping trees on 20 acres of his land in late January. He’ll let the lines run until the first 65-degree day, when sap from maple trees basically slows down to a stop.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}While looking at a 2-inch main line near the lower portion of his sugar bush, Pfister explained how his tap lines become progressively smaller as they travel 1,000 feet up the hill and connect to taps on 1,880 trees. The sap flows into his maple hut located at a lower level on the property.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}“There are 12 miles of maple syrup lines up here,” Pfister said. After the season is over, he’ll travel to each of the trees, remove the valves and plug off the lines.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}“These have been up 10 years now,” he said while looking over the lines and equipment he purchased from Spragues. “I have problems with porcupines and bears chewing on the lines, but you just fix them.”{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}He said the ideal temperature for sap to flow is about 38 degrees.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}“At 38 (degrees) they really start chugging,” Pfister said of the sap flow. “They’ll chug right up to 50 degrees. But it’s got to be cold for at least eight hours and then it has to warm up above 37 degrees.”{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}To the outsider or novice, it would appear the gallons and gallons of sap would produce more syrup. But this isn’t the case, as any seasoned maple syrup producer knows.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}“Right now, on a slow run I got a little over 600 gallons (of sap), that’s what I’m cooking right now … and I’ll get eight to 12 gallons” of syrup, he explained. “On a good, heavy run I’ll get 1,000 to 2,000 gallons” of sap. He said 1,000 gallons of sap produces about 20 gallons of syrup, which is produced following a lengthy three-step process in the sugar shack.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}“I use all of the varieties of maple trees … which makes a better maple flavor,” Pfister said, noting the trees include sugar maple, red maple, black maple and a soft maple.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}Once down in the maple hut, Pfister checked two of the seven large evaporators that he made himself. Sap in each of the evaporators is boiled by lower fireboxes fueled by ash wood from his 145 acres of forest land. He said the ash, which has to be cut down because of the emerald ash borer infestation in the country, is expected to serve a useful purpose for his maple production for years to come. He said the maple hut had a previous life, as he had built it on the foundation of an old abandoned oil pump house. Everything in the shack, including oil field jacks and an engine block from the pump house, have been repurposed to serve as equipment.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}When asked why he got into the hobby, Pfister noted that when he bought the property, he had to pay the taxes somehow.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}He admits he enjoys the endeavor, however, as well as the operation of another project on his property, the Red, White and Blueberries farm in the summer.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}“I can’t say I don’t (enjoy it) or I wouldn’t be doing it,” he commented.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}As for the maple syrup season, an official with the Pennsylvania Maple Syrup Producers said it’s still too early to tell what the outcome will be. Meadville resident Daryl Sheets, president of the Maple Syrup Producers, is also a hobby farmer and said he just started tapping his trees. Other producers have also started tapping and are doing fairly well.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}“It’s a little early yet to really tell what the season will be like,” Sheets said. “I haven’t looked at the (long-range) forecast yet … there’s a lot of us who say, ‘Ask us again in April.’”{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}At Sprague’s Maple Farms, owner Randy Sprague said the season is now opening with his production, as well.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}“Some people have made some syrup already and most everybody is tapping already and getting into production,” he stated. “It’s on the early side, but I see no reason to think why we would have any issues with it not being an OK year. It really depends a ton on what the weather conditions are the next six weeks.{/span}{p dir=”ltr”}{span}“The worst thing that could happen is if it gets really warm in the 50s and stays there for extended periods of time, which is detrimental to sap production,” he said. “What we really want to see is 20s at night and 40s during the day.”{/span}