ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Maple Weekend, a celebration of New York State’s maple syrup industry, continues on Saturday into Sunday. It’s happening during the state’s maple tapping season.

New York is the second-largest maple-producing state, making 846,000 gallons last year. Why is early spring the best time to tap sugar maples? First Alert Meteorologist Nate Morris explains.

During colder months, sugar maples produce sugar in their tissues to prevent them from freezing, similar to how we put ice on the roads. When the temperatures rise above freezing, the sugar becomes more concentrated and becomes greater than the pressure outside the tree. When the tree is tapped, that sap is allowed to flow freely.

At night, when temperatures fall, the pressure outside the tree becomes greater than the pressure inside. That allows the tree to suck up water to create sugar for the next day. Late February to early April is the typical maple tapping season. After that, nights are usually no longer freezing, so there is no pressure difference.

More than 50 maple producers, including several in the Finger Lakes region, are participating in tastings, special events, and demonstrations for Maple Weekend. It kicked off during the weekend of March 22 and 23 and continues the weekend of March 29 to 30.

You can see our guide to local farms participating here. The owner of Schoff’s Sugar Shack in Victor showed News10NBC how they produce maple syrup, from tapping to bottling.