Try it yourself
Oak Lodge in Donegal Township will host a breakfast and open house from 9 a.m. to noon Sunday, Monday and Feb. 25-26.
For more information, call 724-593-2913 or visit www.oaklodgepa.com.
Tickets are available for purchase online.
Penn State Extension has more information about maple syrup production at bit.ly/2kLmlAH.
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Updated 2 hours ago
No one is more dependent on the mercy of temperature swings these days than John Thomas and his son — at least when it comes to producing maple syrup, the 71-year-old from Donegal Township said.
“It depends totally on the weather. There ain't nothing you can do about it. It's whatever Mother Nature gives you,” John Thomas said on a bright afternoon this week in the sugar shack at Oak Lodge — the Donegal Township business that has produced Jimberg Maple Syrup since 1998.
Recent conditions have been pristine for maple syrup producers. Temperatures must dip below freezing at night and rise above freezing during the day to promote sap flow from maple trees.
“But it can't get too hot,” Thomas said. “Because the sap will just stay right up in the branches.”
The ideal high is about 36 degrees, he said.
The low Sunday was 32 before dipping into the high 20s early Monday and then climbing to 37 that afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. An overnight low of 21 warmed to 41 degrees Tuesday — a pattern that repeated Wednesday.
Thursday's high didn't get above freezing. Friday's high is expected to reach 44 before highs soar near 60 over the weekend and lows stay above freezing, the NWS reports.
According to the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association, temperature fluctuation causes pressure within trees that causes sap to flow. “The sap … flows back and forth laterally within the tree. It will flow out a hole drilled into the tree or out through a broken or cut branch,” the association's website reports.
“That's Mother Nature,” Greg Thomas said. “We're just catching it in the process.”
U.S. maple syrup producers make more than 1.3 million gallons a year with an average income of slightly more than $37.5 million, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Pennsylvania ranks from fifth to seventh, making about 60,000 gallons per year with an average crop value of $1.9 million, Penn State Extension reports.
The Thomases first started their operation with a few buckets and 15 taps. Over the years, they grew to love the process and bought more equipment each year.
Now, with roughly $18,000 invested, they have tapped about 5,700 maple trees in Donegal and Cook townships and have the capacity to produce about 2,000 gallons of Grade A, Pennsylvania maple syrup.
The operation, sprawling across Oak Lodge's 800 acres in the Laurel Highlands, includes blue tubes connecting each tapped tree, pump houses, stainless steel storage tanks, a reverse-osmosis machine, an evaporator and several 40-gallon air-tight barrels. John Thomas hopes to increase the number of tree taps to between 6,000 and 7,000 by the end of the year.
The Thomases have collected sap since January to process into syrup.
“But January was not good this year,” John Thomas said.
His son agreed, remembering days where highs reached into the 60s — which is too warm to initiate sap flow.
“Yeah, that killed us,” John Thomas said. “Now, it seems to be on our side. Hey, if it's running, we tap.”
It is still too early to tell how many gallons of syrup they will produce this year, but the Thomases have about 500 gallons of barrels to fill yet.
Three years ago was a different story. Temperatures then fluctuated between night and day so often that they tapped their trees in the first week of 2014.
“We produced 1,120 gallons (of maple syrup) that year,” John Thomas said — a record. Last year, the amount dropped to 540 gallons.
Sugar maples are best but still require about 43 gallons of sap to cook down to a gallon of syrup, according to Penn State Extension. Red, silver and Norway maples can be tapped to make syrup.
John Thomas said their variety of maples require about 75 gallons of sap for 1 gallon of syrup. Sometimes sap will flow for weeks, other times for a few hours, he said.
“But on the other end of that, the weather could turn sour on you,” John Thomas said. “March could be a good month, even into April.”
Dillon Carr is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1298 or dcarr@tribweb.com.
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