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Local Maple Syrup Makers Gear Up For Selling Season

RHINEBECK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - Now that spring is officially here, it won't be long before a new batch of local maple syrup will start showing up at roadside stands all across the Hudson Valley.

Neil Kane has been busy boiling the maple sap at his Sugar Shack in Rhinebeck, New York.

"I've boiled down probably about 2,400 gallons of sap in the last three weeks or so," Kane told WCBS 880's Deborah Rodriguez. "I'm working on bucket number 14 here."

Kane said the crush is on now to get all the syrup boiled and bottled.

"I get up at about 5:30 in the morning and I put in 12 or 14 hours a day," Kane said. "Right here in the Hudson Valley, it's perfect."

Local Maple Syrup Makers Gear Up For Selling Season

Kane said Mother Nature has played an important role in this good maple syrup-making season.

"The weather's been perfect for sugaring. Below freezing at night and above 40's in the day," he told Rodriguez.

Hudson Valley Maple Syrup
Hudson Valley Maple Syrup (credit: Deborah Rodriguez/WCBS 880)

Kane said with the cold nights almost done for the year, he's busy doing the "frog run," collecting the very last of this season's sap.

"Peepers are - you hear them in the spring. They're frogs. And as soon as you hear the peepers, it's gonna warm up," Kane explained to Rodriguez.

Kane said he heard the peepers last Monday.

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