March in Maine is a gray time.

The leaves haven't formed buds on trees, the skies remain leaden and laden with gloom, and the dirt has turned to mud following a winter of snow and cold temperatures.

This is the season Donna Finch looks forward to.

This past week, Finch, of Hidden Treasure Farm in Jefferson, has been able to boil sap and start making maple syrup after a cold winter.

“This isn't mud season; it's maple season,” she said. “I look forward to March. I think I am one of a few people who do.”

Making maple syrup has changed a good deal since Finch was a child who collected sap in glass milk jugs in Connecticut.

She started with a pan on top of a grill and metal buckets. Now, she operates with a gas-powered syrup stove, plastic buckets and high-tech taps that collect more sap.

The past two years have had markedly different conditions, but neither have been ideal for making syrup.

The winter of 2012 featured above-average temperatures and the sap was never able to freeze. This winter, the temperatures stayed cold and the sap has not been able to move until recently.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) New England Field Office, 2012 was the worst winter for syrup since 2007.

There were 1.91 million gallons of syrup produced in 2012, which was down approximately 32 percent from 2011, according to NASS.

Finch said she expected this year, with a cold and prolonged winter, should produce better results, but that it was too early to tell

“Trees can be fussy,” she said.

On Sunday, Finch, along with her grandchildren, was able to haul in more than 100 gallons of sap.

However, there is a good amount of attrition from the tree to the table. To make one gallon of syrup, between 40 and 60 gallons of sap must be boiled at a high temperature. Finch said she hopes to make approximately 10 gallons of syrup by the end of March.

Finch was only able to coax four gallons of syrup last year. But this year, in addition to having better conditions, Finch also has roughly twice the number of taps.

But, the process is largely the same, as are the requirements for a good batch of syrup.

“You need to have good fresh sap and a good hot fire,” she said. “You also need to make sure every thing is very sanitary – I'm particularly fussy about that.”

Ben Bulkeley can be reached at 207-633-4620 or bbulkeley@boothbayregister.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BBRegisterBen.