http://www.startribune.com/weather/blogs/Paul_Douglas_on_Weather.html
We are at what is traditionally the end of our maple syrup season in the Minnesota area. However, in our forest, there is still snow on the ground and ice on the lake. Today is forecasted to be "very nice" in the eyes of most people, into the 70's. That is too warm for sap to flow, so we will take advantage of the break in sap flow to clean out our equipment and prepare for what might be great runs during the March-like weather in mid-April. Maple syruping continues to be the perfect spring hobby (albeit getting a tad out of control). It gives us a reason to smile about a weather forecast that makes other people scowl.
Syrup production is going well. We have made approximately 330 gallons of syrup so far, with more on the way. The sap runs, and the syrup production that follows, have resulted in Maple Madness in the sugar house. Usually we are able to bottle syrup in the morning, then produce more later in the day. Recently we have only been able to produce it all day and put the syrup in 15 gallon stainless steal barrels for later bottling. However, we were running out of barrels. I bottled like crazy yesterday, while my dad boiled. It is sort of like being on a syrup treadmill. Despite bottling 73 gallons of syrup, we didn't make any progress towards freeing up more barrels. The result is we placed a rush order on 10 more barrels so we can keep making syrup. Looking at the forecast, that might not have been enough! (But it is all that was in stock.)