Massachusetts Maple Month kicks off at Winston’s Sugar House
February’s Winter Storm Hernando dumped two feet of snow in Western Massachusetts, on top of existing snow cover. Dealing with that much snow makes it difficult for sugar producers to tap their maple trees.
“It’s a little later than we have been tapping,” said Hunter Sessions, owner of Winston’s Sugar House in Buckland, MA.
As with many things, the extended cold has an upside. “People have been saying the sap will be extra sweet.” He will wait and see if that’s true. “Mother Nature kind of picks and chooses and does what she wants.”
Winston’s Sugar House hosted the Massachusetts Maple Month Kickoff on Feb. 27. Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) Commissioner Ashley Randle tapped an older maple in the field, surrounded by officials, maple producers and maple syrup enthusiasts. She read a proclamation from Gov. Maura Healey declaring March to be Maple Month in Massachusetts. It was signed by Healey, Lt. Gov. Kimberley Driscoll and State Secretary William Galvin.
The proclamation stated that Massachusetts is one of the top 10 maple syrup-producing states in the country, with more than 300 maple producers producing more than 60,000 gallons of syrup per year, worth over $5 million. These maple producers maintain and preserve over 15,000 acres of land, preserving “a cherished New England tradition and way of life that benefits all residents of the Commonwealth.”
Producing syrup, opening sugarhouses and serving pancake breakfasts in March boosts the economy in what is otherwise a dormant time for agritourism in the commonwealth.
Sessions is a board member of the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association (MMPA), which was started in 1947. He’s been producing maple syrup since 2014.
As of Feb. 27, he had not yet started boiling, but he had 1,750 taps ready. He makes repairs year-round from the squirrel and deer damage along the plastic tubing of the line of his sugarbush in Charlemont, which abuts Buckland. With a short window to produce perfection, the sugaring season ends in April.
Last year he produced about 600 gallons, and averages about 800 gallons. He planted 125 maples in 2020. His sugarhouse is a repurposed horse barn on the property owned by his parents Craig and Joni Sessions. He works full-time at his father’s business, West County Equipment Rentals.
“One day I just decided I wanted to do sugaring,” Sessions said. “One of my family members does sugaring. I kind of fell in love with it.”
That family member is his second cousin, Howard Boyden, past president and current board member of MMPA, past president of the North American Maple Sugar Producers and co-owner of Boyden Brothers Maple in Conway, MA.
“I’ve learned a lot from him and Jeanne [Boyden’s wife]. He got me interested. He was there to answer any questions. He still answers any questions if I have any problems.”
What does he like best about sugaring? “The ability to say that I did it. Being proud of what is made in the end,” he said.
Winston’s Sugar House is named for his dog, Winston, who lay at his feet as he conceived his idea of becoming a maple sugar producer in winter 2013. Winston was a black Lab.
“He was always laying on the hottest place he could find, the middle of the driveway, up against the wood stove,” Sessions said.
He envisioned Winston laying near the evaporator as the sap boiled down to be his newly chosen favorite place to warm up, but Winston passed away that winter at age 15.
Sessions delivers his maple syrup and maple products to Avery’s Store and Cold River Package and Market in Charlemont, McCusker’s Market and Keystone Market in Shelburne Falls, Greenfield’s Market in Greenfield and Adams Farm in Athol. He keeps Mo’s Fudge Factor in Shelburne Falls supplied with maple sugar candy and other items in the shapes of maple leaves, with seasonal themes like bunnies for Easter and Halloween candy.
“What gives me joy and want to keep pushing forward and growing is the ability to be able to do it all next to my father,” Sessions said. “I wouldn’t be able to grow like I have without his help in both business management and hard work skills. My great-grandmother Dorothy Sessions used to sugar. We have a plaque in the sugarhouse engraved with ‘In Memory of Gram Sessions.’”
In front of the evaporator is a plaque engraved “Winston.”
For more information, access massmaple.org/about-maple-syrup or massmaple.org/bulk-sales/winstons-sugar-house.
by Laura Rodley
