FARMINGTON — Every year is different for maple sugar producers, but this one takes the biscuit.



“I have a couple of 55-gallon popsicles,” joked Bob Leary, last week, near the end of the latest cold spell. He, together with his wife Debbie, owns a maple sugar operation called Forty to One. The name alludes to 40 gallons of sap traditionally being required to make a single gallon of maple syrup.



The Learys’ popsicles resulted from a couple of days in February when the daytime temperature approached 40 degrees, triggering a brief run of sugar maple sap. Then the bitter weather returned with a vengeance, freezing his two barrels of sap solid. He is unsure if they can be salvaged, but is philosophical about it.



“Last year it was a good year, but this year it has been very, very cold late in the year,”said Leary. “In the past, I have boiled as early as mid February, but I have given up predicting this stuff. None of us maple sugar producers have the foggiest notion. The frost is deep this year, so it may hold the sap for a while, but there are so many variables.”

Usually Bob Leary has 700 taps in his sugar maples, spread over 25 acres off Ten Rod Road, but this year he has been unable to get to all his trees, so far, because of the frozen snow, which he described as “white concrete.” As of March 7, he had about two-thirds of his taps in, but was optimistic about the coming days.



While the Learys’ trees are close to the New Durham line, on the other side of Farmington, on Sheepboro Road near Rochester, Dick Maynard is facing the same challenges with the 200 taps he has been able to install, after strapping on snowshoes.



“This is a very odd season. I haven’t seen this happen before,” said Maynard, who started maple sugaring with his dad 65 years ago, when he was a small lad.



So far he has been able to get a gallon and three-quarters of maple syrup, courtesy of the brief warm-up in February.



“The season is usually six weeks long, but we have lost two already. Now the question is, will it warm up and stay warm? If it warms up and stays up, after three days the sap won’t run. The preference is 25 degree nights and 45 degree days. We need the freeze to recharge the trees, and we need the snowpack to hold the daytime temperature down into the 40s,” said Maynard. “If it gets to 50 degrees, the bacteria shut off the flow and end the season. It’s a crap shoot every year.”

Maynard, like Bob Leary, remembers 2013 as having some very good temperature cycles, resulting in some nice runs.



“The sugar content (of the sap) is down this year by about half a percent,” added Maynard. “Usually it’s about 3.3 percent, but this year its 2.9 or 2.8.”



He also noted, from his first run, that the sap was not as light in color than is normal at the beginning of a run. His personal preference, however, is for a darker end product, as this has a stronger flavor.



Over in Strafford, Phil Auger, formerly with UNH Cooperative Extension Service, and now in his retirement a consultant, taps sap and boils it down into maple syrup with a group of friends. He has some 50 taps.



“The season hasn’t existed yet,” Auger said, speaking before the weekend warm-up. “It is very late getting going. You need cold nights and days above 40 degrees, with high pressure. An unusual climate for a short season.” He explained that high atmospheric pressure, usually accompanied by beautiful blue skies, helps act as a pump for the rising sap.

“Every year is different. That’s what makes it interesting. More often than not a bad season is when it warms up too fast. Then the sap can get buddy, with a bitter flavor,” said Auger.



As a sign of approaching “buddiness,” Auger said maple sugar producers, even though they tap sugar maples, keep their eyes on any nearby red maple trees, whose buds open into leaf a little sooner and act as a harbinger.



Christine Meader, operator of Meader’s Maple Sugar House in Rochester, explains the changing temperatures create changes in pressure within the maple trees, causing the sap to rise up through the tree as the temperatures rise and recede back to the roots when they fall.



“We’re actually collecting the sap as it rises up through the tree,” she said.



Meader said tapping of the trees was completed last week, 275 taps in all on the Rochester farm, but things have been slow going thus far.



“It ran a little bit a week ago and immediately froze,” said Meader, speaking last Friday. “I’m hoping for the first good run starting through this weekend It’s really a matter of what happens from here on out. You can completely miss out on maple sugaring season if it goes right from these temperatures to spring temperatures.”

Lisa Bouchard, who owns and operates Spring Harvest Maple Farm in Barrington, agreed things have been slow getting going thus far this season.



“It seems like we’ve boiled only three times,” she said. “By March we’re pretty much boiling every day.”



But she remains hopeful the season will still turn out all right. Bouchard pointed to 2011, one of the best maple sugar harvests in recent times, as an example of what could happen.



“We’re hoping even though it’s a late start that we’ll be boiling into April,” she said. “In 2011 we boiled for 7-8 weeks and that season also started late.”



In contrast one need look no further than the following year.



In 2012, the NH Maple Producers Association reported, “The last boil of the season came early for many producers in the southern part of the state as temperatures rose into the 70s and 80s for five days forcing the buds to develop and cause undesirable sap for boiling. Many producers ended the season around March 19 due to the warmth.”



Last year the Bouchards were able to render 540 gallons. Lisa said they would like to see 600 gallons this year from the combination of the more than 900 taps they own. Bouchard said the couple also boil sap brought in from others who do not have the means to complete the project themselves.

Both Bouchard and Meader said they are looking forward to a good maple sugaring season as well as a good Maple Weekend, this year scheduled March 22 and 23.



“That’s definitely our biggest weekend,” said Bouchard. We have family and friends help us. This will be our sixth season participating and we’re usually bottling syrup to keep our shelves stocked. We sell it faster than we can make it sometimes.”



Meader said last year was her first participating in Maple Weekend.



“It was pretty overwhelming and a huge success,” she said.



Despite being a short season, two months in the best years, maple sugaring is a boon to the state economy and tourism.



A report titled “The Economic Importance of New Hampshire’s Forest-based Industry” furnished by the N.H. Division of Forests and Lands published in 2011 states that in 2009 the wholesale and retail sale of maple syrup and related products totaled $4.8 million.



Reporter Scott Kinney contributed to this story.