Here's why Union City Rotary is selling less maple syrup this year

UNION CITY — If you want Union City Rotary maple syrup this season, plan on getting the sweet, sticky, tasty pancake topping soon.

According to Rotary member Jerry Snyder, the warm winter weather cut production this year from over 300 gallons to 146 gallons.

For over 50 years, Union City Rotary has raised funds for community projects by tapping maple trees around the community.

After the May tornado, the Rotary Club took about $3,000 worth of gift cards door-to-door in Sherwood to help those with storm damage.

Every year, blue, five-gallon bags are placed underneath taps on maple trees throughout the village and area.

The time it takes for a bag to fill can vary depending on several factors, especially temperature.

To produce the best sap for syrup, 50 degrees days followed by night at freezing gives the best sugar content.

Snyder said when they tapped the maple trees in mid-February, "We had 70-degree days and nights that got down into the 40s. It wasn't the greatest year."

"The syrup is good. That doesn't change," Snyder said, just the amount produced.

Usually, the club collects until mid-March. "This year we stopped March 8. The sap got down to 1%. That's one 1% sugar, 99% water," Snyder said.

Club members boil the sap to concentrate the sugar into syrup at its "sugar shack" at Railroad and Southern Streets.

Union City Rotary sells the syrup at Jack's Grocery in the village, from members, and at Farmers Markets in Union City, Coldwater, and Marshall.

Next year, Snyder said the club may try to tap as early as the end of January.

That did not help the Athens producers that tapped two weeks earlier this year. "They only made 10 more gallons," Snyder said.

"Some of the big producers down in Indiana didn't even tap this year. They said it was not worth it," Snyder said.

Snyder and other club members hope this was just a warmer winter due to La Nina rather than the effects of global warming.

The University of Wisconsin Agricultural Exertion Services reported climate change impacted that state's maple syrup production in the past few years.

As winters and summers become warmer, the sugar content in sap decreases, which has implications for the amount of maple syrup or sugar a producer makes, Wisconsin Ag Extension said.

The report stated that the lower the sugar content, the longer you boil it, so you spend more time and fuel.

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Wisconsin and northeastern states are looking for ways to keep maple syrup production up as climate changes.

— Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com 

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Union City Rotary maple syrup production global warming