Maple syrup season beginning soon

DEERFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Here in Western Massachusetts there's a saying that it's the start of spring when the maple sugar sap starts flowing. Spring, then, could be coming!

In Deerfield, Williams Farm and Sugarhouse owner Chip Williams will open his restaurant on Monday, and within days after that, he'll start tapping into his trees for the first maple sugar of the season.

Williams is the fifth generation owner of one of Franklin County’s more than 100 maple syrup makers.  He told 22News that the process is so simple, yet so complicated.

“You drill a hole into a tree, you get sap, of which 98% is water, 2% syrup.  We boil the sap down, and we're left with the syrup,” Williams said.

“It takes forty gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup. You need a good chunk of sap to make a little bit of syrup.”

And farmers don’t have much time to do this; syrup making season only lasts for a few weeks.

During a good year, his 150 year-old Sugarhouse will make 2,500 gallons, but there have been bad years when they would make only about 500 gallons.

Williams credits Vermont with doing an excellent job of marketing their maple syrup, but in his opinion, Franklin County maple syrup is as good or even better than the kind they make just to the north.