This week began with anticipated forecasts of daily temperatures hitting 50-60 F. The nights  were projected to get below freezing, however 40's became the norm !

This resulted in sap flow that was marginal at the beginning of the week, and came to a screeching halt by Friday evening, inspite of applying 24" of vacuum.We have only been able to collect and process 1000 gallons of sap from our 900+ taps.

HOWEVER, there is a glimmer of hope today. I awoke to 30 deg. in the sugarbush and anticipate some flow to return. The collection tank deep in our woods has been drained of the 2 day old sap because its exposure to 60 deg.for greater than a day will degrade the quality of the sap due to bacterial contamination. This results in a syrup quality that doesn't meet our high expectations. All the stainless steel tanks have been power washed and equipment is fully operational. And so.....we wait.

Two weeks ago, we marched through the woods and installed all of the taps with the help of family and friends.  After getting the taps in, the work slowed down because it has been too cold to do the next projects.  As soon as we get some temperatures above freezing this weekend, we will turn on the vacuum pump and start looking for the leaks in our plastic tubing.  There are always a lot of repairs to do.  Squirrels, birds and falling branches can really do a number on the tubing, which has to all be connected in order to deliver vacuum pressure to the trees and allow the sap to flow to the tank.

Next week is looking like it will be a very good week to get the season started.  Highs are forecasted to reach the upper 40's, which will hopefully get the sap moving in the trees.  It is always very hard to predict sap flow and I think that early season flows are the hardest to predict because if the ground remains frozen for a long time, it can take a while before the trees have access to some of the soil moisture.  

Our new bottling unit has been put to good use and we have replenished our supply of maple syrup and maple cream. Stock up for fall  - gifts, baking (a drizzle of maple syrup on apple crisp), topping off your oatmeal on a cool morning , drizzling roasted vegetables with syrup.. .  . .

Enjoy our maple syrup! We'd be pleased if you spread the word about our syrup and maple cream.