The New Hampshire Maple Producers Association (NHMPA) recently hosted their annual meeting in Concord, NH. NHMPA President Andrew Chisholm was happy to announce that this year’s meeting had one of the largest turnouts since the group was founded in 1943.
The organization has continued to grow each year, having over 350 members by the end of 2024, making the NHMPA one of the largest maple associations in the world.
Each year, the association hosts the Carlisle Award competition, an opportunity for qualifying NHMPA members to be recognized for their high-quality syrup. The winners of the 2025 Carlisle Award were Jason Weale and Jennifer Mercer with Black Dog Bees & Maple Trees. Will-A-Way Maples, Atkins Family Sugarhouse, Babel’s Sugar Shack and Journey’s End Maple Farm were recognized as second through fifth place, respectively.
Dr. Tim Rademacher, the new scientific director at UVM’s Proctor Maple Research Center (PMRC), spoke to the group about the basics of maple production and discussed some experiments done at PMRC. Rademacher explained how tapping is “the single most important practice to increase yield” and spoke about the proper techniques to use.
Tapping techniques may differ based on the size of the tree, but no matter what, “creating a tap is creating an injury.” Rademacher believes “tapping twice only makes sense on big trees,” as a second tap hole will only increase your yield by 20% maximum. A third tap hole is not beneficial to the tree or to production yield, and a tapping pattern should be maintained throughout the tree to prevent tapping in a spot you previously did.
It’s commonly thought that creating a larger tap hole in a tree will lead to a higher sap yield, but that’s not always the case. Tapping deeper into the tree does not lead to an increase in yield, but it does lead to an increase of injury. Rademacher recommended going two inches in depth. The height of the trunk has minimal effect on the quality of the tap; if anything, higher taps may lead to slightly sweeter sap.
(L – R) Andrew Chisholm, NHMPA president; Jennifer Mercer and Jason Weale, Black Dogs Bees & Maple Trees, winners of the Carlisle Award; Andy Chapman, Feast Global; Dr. Gary Ward Black Sr., former Georgia Ag Commissioner; and Marianna Chapman, Feast Global. Photo by Kelsi Devolve
UVM’s PMRC has been conducting a study to examine how tapping trees affects tree growth. They found trees of similar size and had some bucket/gravity tapped and some vacuum tapped, as well as left some untapped. They determined the “vacuum tapped trees started to grow less” but they do produce more sap than the gravity tapped trees. The gravity tapped trees seem to grow at the same rate as the untapped trees.
Dr. Gary Ward Black Sr., the former Georgia Commissioner of Ag, presented at the NHMPA meeting to discuss the importance of fundamentals. Black highly recommended revisiting the industry’s fundamentals often. “When you understand those fundamentals, a lot of good things begin to happen,” he said. In order to execute these fundamentals, a business needs “trust, a plan and a dream.”
Marianna and Andy Chapman with Feast Global spoke on their goals for the future of New Hampshire maple, specifically becoming “the world’s top-shelf maple brand.” Marianna has recognized many great opportunities for the Granite State industry to expand its market throughout the U.S. and internationally. Through multiple international sales meetings and events, Marianna stressed the importance of premium packaging and frequent follow-ups with potential buyers and collaborators.
Considering New Hampshire maple is a high quality product, it should be displayed in a premium package. Marianna is looking to develop a premium New Hampshire brand package to elevate its appearance, make a standard system to sell New Hampshire maple products and to learn how to discuss international trade with varying cultures.
At the end of the day, “what the buyer wants is for you to love your product” and “not all buyers are your buyers,” she said.
The NHMPA continues to grow year after year, and has many plans to improve the industry in the near future. They’ve developed a new website – nhmaplemap.com – that not only is “going off the charts with performance,” said Chisholm, but was created to become “everything in the future for the customer.”
To learn more about the organization, attend NHMPA’s annual event, New Hampshire Maple Weekend, on March 15 and 16, at locations throughout the state. Learn more at nhmapleproducers.com/maple-weekend-2.
by Kelsi Devolve
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