Ward's Maple Feeds the 
Co-op's Sweet Tooth, Locally

By Kristie Snyder, 

GreenLeaf Editor

Every year in late winter, when the weather turns from frigid to what some call "mud season," 
Lou Ward gets ready for action. That not-quite-spring weather — when the days warm slightly, melting snow and turning driveways into mud traps, and the nights dip down into temps that refreeze the slush — is hated by most but beloved by "sugarers." For those who make maple syrup, that's the time to start "tapping."

Maple syrup begins with the watery sap of the sugar maple, Acer saccharum, a slow-growing, common Northeastern tree that can reach nearly a hundred feet in height. The trees prepare to break their winter dormancy, and sap begins to flow, when temperatures rise above freezing during the day but dip back below 32 degrees at night (here, that's usually late February and March).

Ward started sugaring as a child, with some neighborhood kids, and has been making and selling syrup commercially since 1990. He has sold to GreenStar for over 20 years, for the last ten of which his products have been certified organic. He makes one to two thousand gallons of syrup a year on his farm in Smithville Flats (northeast of Whitney Point), and sells a good portion of that at GreenStar, his only large retail outlet. This year, he started tapping his trees in mid-February. When asked how he thought this season would go, he laughed. "It all depends on what happens over the next four to six weeks," he said. "You have to love this to do it — and you have to be very optimistic!"

Read more: Ward's Maple Feeds the 
Co-op's Sweet Tooth, Locally