Covid 19 increases syrup demand

[maple flats]

Based on the last 2 months I'm beginning to think more people are staying home and eating meals that use pure maple syrup. The last 2 months have been my best Feb and Mar since I first sold syrup in 2003. Is anyone else seeing this too? Those 2 months have been over double what the same time period were in any other year, not counting Maple Weekend sales (which are not happening this year). In fact this year has been better than even years with Maple Weekend except one. I'm not complaining, just observing the trend.

[dogpatch]

I am a small producer selling enough to cover the costs of production. I have sold enough so far to cover about a third of my costs. If and when the farmers markets get started I hope to make enough to buy all the supplies I need for next year. I do sell to 1 local grocery store and his sales have been very good so far, may be a result of people cooking at home now. Although I would like to think it's the great product.

[Mead Maple]

I agree. Folks are home and cooking


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[wmick]

My wife got quite a chuckle the other day... Reading an article about things to do while on Covid isolation.. One of the suggestions was to "learn a heritage skill, such as cooking or baking"...

[ecolbeck]

My wife got quite a chuckle the other day... Reading an article about things to do while on Covid isolation.. One of the suggestions was to "learn a heritage skill, such as cooking or baking"...


Sounds like feeding oneself is becoming a heritage skill!

[Michael Greer]

Might be a good year to learn some gardening skills too.

[highlandcattle]

I know the media is encouraging people to support take out. I would never think of eating anything someone else made at this point. Are the people preparing the food in good health?....Nope, we'll suffer at home with my cooking. Glad we had the back yard rototilled. Saves mowing. Hopefully this encourages folks to start putting in gardens and getvan idea of where food comes from. Using our syrup on alot of stuff. Tons of recipes on Pintrist.

[Paddymountain]

I believe I sold more this Feb/Mar. than any other year too. I don't keep track on paper
but in my head it seems people have really been carrying it off.
I do self serve at the house and up until yesterday when the Gov shut Pennsylvania down
I was always replenishing my cabinet. We'll see what the weekend brings, when the cabin folk start showing up.

[maple flats]

I sell from the house, by appointment only (this year). The customer calls and places the order. Then I instruct them to call again when they get to my driveway. At that point I set the syrup on the steps and have them place an envelope in my mailbox with the cash or check. They do and after they leave, I use nitrile gloves and get the envelope. In the house, the envelope is sprayed with a virucidal spray, turned and sprayed again. We don't even open the envelope until a week has passed. We then open it with gloves and spray the cash or check, both sides and let it set until fully dry. A paper is set by each envelope with the amount due and the customer's license plate number. So far no issues.
Because of our age and the fact that my wife's white cell count is extremely low since she had Chemo and Radiation back in 2007 we have to be extra careful. There is no way she would survive if she got the virus.

[Tmeeeh]

we put our mail, newspaper and cash or checks received in the oven 275 degrees for 10 minutes.

[maple flats]

That sounds like a good idea too, in these troubling times.

[Michael Greer]

I'm selling self serve to my friends that call ahead. They leave a check and take the goodies. No contact necessary. I'm beginning to miss folks though.

[maple flats]

Sales remain strong, Far more orders than typical, I think way more people are eating a good breakfast which includes real Maple Syrup. Not only from old faithful customers only either, lots of new customers too.

[SeanD]

Cancelling maple weekend was definitely a blow. Porch sales have been steady, but I haven't compared to last year yet, but I think I'll sit down and do that. I have a wholesale order that I normally revisit every 6 months or so. I just filled that order again after about 2 weeks, so things really exploded there. That got my attention. It's a farm store that sells a lot of local meats, eggs, vegetables, etc. I agree people have time to eat better, bake, etc. right now. The NYT just had a maple pie recipe a couple days ago. Not as good the French-Canadian versions we see on this site. I think seeing maple in recipes motivates people to use it. It works on me!

[Bruce L]

we put our mail, newspaper and cash or checks received in the oven 275 degrees for 10 minutes.

Here in Canada our money now is plastic bills,might not do well in oven,so we carry cash and cheques out to the attached greenhouse with a pair of pinchers or something and let it sit in the hot sun for a week or so.

[DuncanFTGC/SS]

Sounds like feeding oneself is becoming a heritage skill!Several years ago I listened to a presentation that made the point that scratch cooking was such a small percentage of the population that market researchers couldn't even measure it.
Sad actually!

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[maple flats]

I'd bet with Covid 19 the percentage climbed. I know my wife used to bake fairly often, now she bakes almost daily, so much so that she bought 100# of flour and just ordered 50# more. And one son of ours just started making his own pizza from scratch. He has perfected it so it is easily mistaken for the local most liked pizza shop pizzas.
My wife also has some of her friends cooking with maple too. I have one customer who buys an average of 26 HG of syrup every year and they use it, don't sell it.

[SeanD]

That's why I can't get flour. You're hoarding it!

I just crunched the numbers. Porch pickup is good, but I'm still down from last year. Missing maple weekend is a big hole to fill. It's a little over 10% of my annual sales. My other big chunk of sales comes from farmers markets. I'm on the fence on what I want to do about those. They will open. Our state has deemed them essential, but I know I'm not really essential and I'm not sure how much I want to put everyone at risk being there. This is just a hobby for me. I'll re-evaluate as we get to May and June. Hopefully, we can put this in our rearview this summer.

[maple flats]

I know lots of producers who do well at farmer's markets, I did one just a single year and decided I could do better with my time.

[GeneralStark]

I have seen a considerable increase in online orders and "curbside pickups" in the last several months. Have also added a couple wholesale outlets through local ag. producers "aggregating sales" with some unique local food offerings.

All my wholesale outlets have been doing well and the one that had to shut down in March opened back up and has been doing ok. Only doing one local Farmer's Market this season and it has been a little below average but overall good. We decided to not do any markets in Boston this season as they are facing serious restrictions.

It's hard to say what the next several months will bring but I plan to keep "pivoting" as necessary to keep sales going well. The whole Covid situation has definitely forced some changes, with the big one being website and social media development. It's a work in progress...

[maple flats]

My sales, have now slowed some, but are still above all previous years month to month. I still have good local sales at both my 1 retail outlet and out my door by appointment only. While Feb and March sales were over 2x my previous year's sales, it slowly fell to about 25% over previous years on a month by month comparison. I still think I'll have enough syrup to carry me to the 2021 season. If it had stayed at 2x previous years I'd have needed to buy bulk.

[toquin]

We moved our scale for weighing blueberries for our u-pick operation outside. Set up a little table and large umbrella. Put pints and quarts on table and 4 out of 5 customers will buy syrup. Should sell out in 2 more weeks, crazy this year.