Leon Thompson & Stina Plant Visit Ovitt's Sugarhouse

Sugaring in January?

By LEON THOMPSON | Messenger Staff Writer
A Special Thanks To Stina Plant - Messenger Photographer For The Photos
Please do not use the photos without getting her permission at:
Messenger Photos <stina@samessenger.com>

FAIRFAX –– The scene is typical for Fairfax in March: Four generations of Ovitts gather in their decades-old, stone-floor sugarhouse during the first boil of the season.

Inside, Orman Ovitt, the 90-year-old family patriarch, mingles with a dozen-plus friends and relatives, who munch on crackers, cheese and sap-sweetened hot dogs, as the boiler makes the state’s sweetest tourist attraction.

Outside, passing motorists see steam rise from the sugarhouse, above the Ovitts’ maple tubing that winds through trees on Buck Hollow Road.

Ah, yes – March in Vermont.

Except …

… this is Jan. 31.

“I’ve been sugaring all my life, and I’ve never boiled this early – never,” Orman Ovitt said Tuesday, as he stood near his boiler. “This is somethin’ else.”

Vermont’s abnormally warm January gave Vermont sugarmakers the gift they needed to get a good jump on their season: Warm days. Cold nights. And not much snow – perfect for tapping.

Maple producers throughout Vermont started tapping their trees within the last two weeks, and some in southern parts of the state have made syrup, but not as much as the Ovitts, said Henry Marckres, state maple specialist.

“This is great sugaring weather, but it’s very unusual,” Marckres said, noting that Vermont produced 410,000 gallons of syrup in 2005.

With little snow to trudge through, the Ovitts tapped early this year – 11,000 in all – and started collecting sap last week. They started boiling Monday.

As of last night, they had already made 200 gallons of fancy grade. They made about 1,600 gallons last year.

“We’re six weeks earlier than we were last year,” said Bob Ovitt, 62, Orman’s son. “It’s amazing. It’s just unreal. But if you can’t control the weather, you might as well take advantage of it.”

Vermont recorded the fifth-warmest January on record in Burlington this year, and the fourth warmest in St. Johnsbury, according to Mark Breen, a meteorologist stationed at the Fairbanks Museum.

The average temperature in Burlington this January was 28.2 degrees. Burlington’s warmest day was Jan. 14, when the thermometer peaked at 55.

St. Johnsbury recorded a high of 56 on Jan. 21, and it hit 61 in Bennington on Jan. 18.

The warmest January in Vermont occurred in 1932, when the average temperature was 29.7 degrees.

Breen said the weather pattern will change next week, after a possible snowstorm over the weekend. Temperatures will be colder than normal and stay over several days.

“Just how that all plays out right now is yet to be determined,” Breen said.

If the trees freeze again, sugarmakers with lines and tubes won’t have a problem, but tap holes could go dry for those with bucket-driven operations, Marckres said.

“We shouldn’t have too much of a problem, though,” he said.

The average low in January was 20 degrees in Burlington – terrible if you’re an ice fisherman, but fantastic if you’re an Ovitt in Fairfax.

Bob Ovitt and his sons, Bob Jr., 38, and Sam, 43, now run Orman’s sugarhouse and will eventually pass it on to Bob Jr.’s children: Kyle, 15; Kody, 9; and Kole, 4.

“I’ve always loved sugaring,” Orman said. “I still remember sleeping under a horse blanket on the sugarhouse bench when I was 5 or 6 years old. I feel the freedom of the world when I do this.”

Does he think he’ll boil in January again?

“I won’t make any promises,” he said.

“But,” he added, after a good laugh, “you never know.”