Greetings from your President

Another Winter meeting has come and gone, and I hope everybody that attended the meeting left with some new knowledge or maybe a helpful tidbit that could be used in your operation. A special thanks to our speakers this year, Dr. Randy Heiligmann and Dr. Gary Graham, who traveled from Ohio to be with us and give our Association a memorable session. I especially enjoyed watching the faces of participants as they taste tested the different samples of off flavored syrups. I had always heard of some producers making Maple Syrup from Box Elder or Manitoba Maple but was surprised at the flavor of this variety of Maple. For me I will stick to Sugar Maple and Soft Maples for producing syrup.

Work is already in action for next year's Winter meeting; the location again will be in Clare, as the board feels that it is in a good centralized location for all members to attend as well as the affordability and amenities provided by the Doherty Hotel. We are working on mixing up the food selection for the next meeting, as it seems we have been served the same meal several years in a row. The board is confident that our key speaker is on board with us for our meeting. He will be traveling from Vermont to give his presentation. Without the size and strength of our association, these outstanding speakers would be very difficult to book for our meetings.

I would like to apologize to our equipment dealers for the lack of time producers were given to mingle with you this year at the winter meeting. We had a lot of information to be covered in a very short period of time, and the program used up the majority of our time. I am planning on allotting time during next year's winter meeting to focus more on the dealers and the essential equipment you provide to us by providing some time for each of you to make a short presentation before the members.

Congratulations to Jean Maday; she was presented the Honorary Member award and was well deserving of it with all her involvement in MMSA in the past as well as in the present and, hopefully, in the future.

Congratulations go out to this year's maple syrup, candy and cream winners. We would like to encourage everyone to participate in the contest. This season, if you produce some really special syrup, consider saving a pint of it for next years contest. Terry Coleman has agreed to be our 2007 syrup contest chair person, and a special thanks to Steve Youdes who has chaired the syrup contest for many years.

You may notice some changes in this newsletter, as Cathi Bates has graciously agreed to take over the responsibility of being the MMSA Newsletter Editor again. Cathi was the editor for many years prior to Betsy Carls taking on the job two years ago. Betsy requested to resign to spend more time with her other obligations. We thank Betsy for all the work she did for the association these past two years, putting the newsletter into a software program that Cathi will be able to utilize; making putting the newsletter together and printing much more proficient. Cathi is a veteran at this, but can always use any informative news you may have to publish in the newsletters.

I am working on all the details for the Ionia Free Fair, for the producers that signed up for the free booth space to sell their maple products. There are still two dates available if anybody is interested in selling their products, along with promoting Michigan Maple. The available dates are 7/23/06, and 7/25/06. If you are interested in participating, please get in touch with me soon.

I hope this year's maple crop is a good one for all, as this years weather has been anything but what I would call a normal winter here in Michigan. It’s now the middle of February, and the weather is looking perfect for the start of sugaring. Here’s to hoping the weather holds out, and for us all to make some quality syrup.

Tom Cook, President