Pennsylvania's maple syrup farming community is still attracting entrepreneurs
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Clear, watery sugar maple sap drips from a tap into a bucket.
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Everett Sechler's family has been making maple syrup and voting Republican since the Civil War.
Mr. Sechler, 60, who sells his syrup from Sechler's Sugar Shack in Confluence, has family sugaring records that go back to 1850, even before his great-great-grandfather joined the Union soldiers during the Civil War to show his support for President Abraham Lincoln.
Molly Enos doesn't have that sort of maple sugaring genealogy. Her family tried to make maple syrup once when she was a child; they boiled enough sap to produce about a gallon of syrup and her father burned his tongue badly while tasting it.
But there are thousands of maple trees lining the Enos' Christmas tree farm in Rockwood, Somerset County, so they built a sugaring shack, and Molly Enos, 21, formed her own limited liability company for which she is the president and the sales force.
Her family tapped 700 trees around the farm last year and made about 400 gallons of syrup that Miss Enos is selling from Paul Bunyan's Sugar Camp.
Last year was a terrible year to get into the business.
The season lasted an average of 23 days around the state, down from 28 in 2009, and maple syrup production was down 41 percent in Pennsylvania despite a slight uptick in the number of trees tapped statewide.
Mr. Sechler said the weather was terrible. Maple sap runs best when warm days are followed by nights during which the temperature drops below freezing. Last spring it warmed up and stayed warm.
The state produced 54,000 gallons of syrup, down from 92,000 in 2009 and 100,000 in 2008. There have been other years in recent memory that were worse. In 1993 the state total was just 40,000 gallons, and in 1995 the total was 43,000.
The total value of Pennsylvania maple syrup production for 2009, the latest year available, was $3.5 million. By comparison, the dairy business in the state generates $1.5 billion in receipts a year.
First Published January 16, 2011 12:00 am
