The year 2020 has brought many interesting challenges spanning all facets of our lives, such as its significant impact on weddings, funerals, family reunions, and many more local community and association events. The maple syrup industry is no exception. Covid has placed many limitations on holding Maple Tours, Farmers’ Markets, engaging in Road Side Stands, County Fairs, and much more. The Michigan Maple Syrup Association (MMSA) cancelled their annual Spring Maple Producer Tours and their MMSA Fall Tour which is held regionally and was scheduled for the U.P. this year.
The October 9th-18th North American Maple Fall Tour, however, which was designed to involve all the maple producing states, is still moving forward. Information for this new event can be found at the website, fallmapletour.com, and involves states who have less Covid restrictions- Pennsylvania, Maine, Ohio, Vermont, New York, and Wisconsin. States who opted out due to Covid restrictions are Michigan, Connecticut, West Virginia and Massachusetts. The website also provides information on each state’s events by clicking on the state. While you are viewing all the events, don’t forget to check out Michigan’s Maple Syrup Association’s website.
Although Michigan has been under some of the most restrictive Executive Orders, maple syrup producers have been able to market their syrup and take advantage of bulk syrup selling as needed. Current information is not available at this time as to Corvid’s impact on our Michigan maple syrup sales however, one would expect that producers may end up with more maple syrup in stock than preferred. Hopefully, Michigan’s Maple Syrup Association’s annual meeting will be able to take place in January in Mt Pleasant to reunite maple producers and families as it has for many years.
Looking to help small businesses and the maple syrup industry in this difficult time? Buying your maple syrup from local producers is one of the best solutions to help Michigan’s Maple Syrup industry continue to thrive for years to come.
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