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.)

The last four days have delivered a continuous run of sap like we've never seen at Somerskogen.  The crisp nights in the mid-20's, followed by a rapid rise to the 40's has resulted in sap production of over 1 1/2 to 2 gallons per tap, per day! The Reverse Osmosis machine ,which takes out 75% of the water in the sap,  has kept us from running out of storage capacity. We have been emptying the collection tank in the lower woods up to 4 times /day.

A few more days appear favorable to decent sap production before sustained warm weather slows down production.  There is still plenty of snow in the woods, so time will tell what happens with sap flows. We'll wait and see!

The long awaited "great run", which we use to describe sap flows of greater than 1.5 gallon per tap in a 24 hour period, arrived twice this week, providing a test of coordination and management of our systems.

The result has been rapid processing and outstanding quality syrup.  Anticipation remains high for outstanding flows this weekend.

We have plenty of syrup for sale in a variety of bottle sizes.  Think spring and enjoy nature's gift from the maple trees.