US maple syrup production up despite shorter season

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — U.S. maple syrup production increased slightly this year, even though the sap-collecting season was shorter than last year’s, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The country produced 4.2 million gallons of the pancake topper, up 1% from 2018.

Vermont, the country’s leading producer, made more than 2 million gallons.

New York, which yielded 820,000 gallons, followed, according to the data released this week. Then came Maine with 580,000 gallons and Wisconsin with 270,000 gallons. Michigan ended up with 195,000 gallons and Pennsylvania produced 157,000 gallons. New Hampshire, the only state in the available data to see a decline in production, yielded 148,000 gallons. Total production numbers were not available for some other maple-producing states.

The maple season requires warm days and nights below freezing for the sap to flow in maple trees. The sap is then boiled into syrup. This year’s season lasted an average of 30 days in the syrup-producing states, compared with 42 days in 2018, the USDA said.

In Vermont, the season started later than in recent years, worrying some producers that it would be too short. But the state ended up producing more syrup than in 2018. It also had 330,000 more taps in trees this year for a total of 6 million taps that helped to draw more sap.

Amanda Voyer, executive director of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association, said she was even shocked by the amount produced. A number of sugar makers reported one or two record-breaking days of sap flow, she said.

“You can have one day where it’s trickling sap or you can have one day where it’s coming out gangbusters,” she said. “There just happened to be some really solid days.”

Truck brings Georgia peaches from farm to table across US

FORT VALLEY, Ga. (AP) — The idea behind The Peach Truck involved selling Georgia peaches from the farm directly to the consumer.

The truck now travels around the nation selling peaches in parking lots, The Telegraph reported.

Stephen Rose said he now sells around two semitrailer loads of peaches a day. All of the peaches come from Georgia growers.

Rose said that social media marketing has been a key driver of the business. He says people go online to follow where the truck will be and line up by the hundreds to get 25-pound boxes of peaches.

He said the peaches sold from The Peach Truck go from the orchard to the customer in two days or less.

Rose grew up in Fort Valley — in the heart of Georgia peach country — and was friends with members of the Pearson family that grows peaches on its Pearson Farm, the newspaper reported.

He grew up eating Georgia peaches, but moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2010 and was disappointed with the quality of peaches there, he said.

A couple of years later, he was sitting on a front porch and talking to Will McGehee, who does marketing for Pearson Farm. McGehee said he had long dreamed of a way to quickly get peaches from the farm directly to the consumer, and Rose saw an opportunity, The Telegraph reported.

Rose started it as a sideline business, buying the peaches from Pearson wholesale and then selling them on the weekends out of a 1964 Jeep Gladiator. He sold 10 tons of peaches within five weeks and the business became so popular that he and his wife, Jessica, both left their 9-to-5 jobs, he said.

“They are basically the vehicle that we are getting fresher peaches into people’s hands a lot faster than the traditional channel,” McGehee said.

Report: Santa Fe losing millions thanks to Airbnb, others

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A new report said Santa Fe is missing out on about $3.8 million in lodger and gross receipts taxes annually thanks to short-term rental units.

The Albuquerque Journal said the report issued Wednesday by the nonprofit group Homewise Inc. said hosts from apps like Airbnb aren’t following city’s ordinances and the city should do more to enforce the laws.

Homewise CEO Mike Loftin said Santa Fe should enforce its registration requirements for short-term rentals and require them to contribute their fair share of taxes.

The report said that the number of short-term rentals skyrocketed from roughly 300 to 1,444 in four years from 2015 through 2018.