26-02-2025
Better late than never – it's maple syrup time
SHARPSVILLE, Pa. (WKBN) – The maple syrup season is running a little behind, but that's OK. There's still plenty of time to collect it and turn it into various products of maple goodness.
The trees are tapped. Over 1,400 plugs are going at least an inch into the maple trees at Coryea's Maple Products. And today, sap collection started.
'Very exciting. We're about three weeks later than last year, so we've been patiently waiting for today to come,' said Aleigh Coryea.
In the first week of February 2024, Coryea's was already cooking. When the temperature is below freezing, it builds up pressure in the trees. The temperature rises, and the sap is pushed out and into the lines that run to collection tanks.
The sap drips slowly, but the season runs fast. It takes over 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.'We can't make maple syrup without collecting the sap. So this is our season right now, thankfully. So our whole the rest of our whole entire year is based on what we do over the next few weeks,' Coryea said.
Coryea's is an award-winning producer, and this is the most important time of the season. The lines are laid, and now is the time to collect what it needs to make its variety of maple products. 'Our season ends whenever Mother Nature stops giving us freezing nights. So whenever it doesn't freeze again, then we're done,' Coryea said.
Coryea's had some leftover sap collected last year, which it could start cooking today.
Maple Taste & Tour weekend is coming up. That's the annual open house and three sugar houses are participating in Mercer County, plus 23 others across northwest Pennsylvania, including Coryea's in Sharpsville, Munnell Run Farm in Mercer and Windy Knoll Maple in Stoneboro.
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