GREETINGS FROM YOUR PRESIDENT

Summer has finally arrived. Lower Michigan is having very hot and dry weather and looking for some rain. The corn won’t make it knee high by the 4th of July unless we get some rain.

Maple syrup production around the state varied considerably. Producers in the lower part of Michigan hardly had a season. The nights did not get into the 20’s and there was barely enough sap to fire up the evaporators. Ron Thomas reported a poor season but Tim Boonstra, who is about 15 miles north of Ron, reports an excellent season. The Alpena area was also excellent but the western side, reported by Ron Kistler and Fred Bates, say they barely had half a season. The UP also varied in production from good to excellent. Very little light syrup was made this year.

The same poor reports of production also came from Ohio and Indiana. Areas of Wisconsin had good to excellent. It seems the farther north, the better the production. Lower Michigan producers are looking forward to a good year next year as they feel it can’t be any worse than this year.

Deb Thomas has arranged a train trip to Nova Scotia for those interested in attending the NAMSC and IMSI meeting October 22-25, 2003. If you think you can attend and haven’t contacted Deb, please call her. If you cannot take the fill week needed for the train trip, you can fly out of Grand Rapids for about the same price as the train.

Mark your calendars for our next Annual winter meeting, on January 17, 2004 at the Doherty Hotel in Clare. Details will be in the winter issue of the newsletter. The Board has been looking into other locations to hold this meeting, but we encounter conflicts with snowmobiling and Tip-Up Town. The hotels would rather cater to them.

In Mid-June a mailing was sent to all Michigan MMSA members regarding our latest Web-Site enhancement. At the May Board meeting approval was given to implement a Directory and Descriptive listing/link to producers and suppliers Web-Sites. Tom Cook is coordinating this project with Todd Baribeau. Michigan producers and equipment suppliers who are members of the MMSA may have a Directory Listing ($20.00 per yr.) and a Descriptive Listing or Link to their own site ($30.00 per yr.). The Directory listing will be used to click to your descriptive site. The fees being charged are to cover our Web-Site hosting and maintenance fees for a year. Renewal fees will be based upon the number of producers and suppliers taking advantage of this service.

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER. Hope to see you in the UP in September for the Fall Tour.

Jean Maday, President