April 13th was the day we threw in the towel on the 2023 season. We were 6 days into a continuous flow of sap but the last 3 were in the 80s which set high temperature records.This melted any remaining snow, took the ice off our lake and began to turn the sap cloudy. The sugar content of the sap dropped from 2+ % to only 1.2%. This is one of the early signs that the season is coming to a close. The sugar sand (niter) more than doubled which plugs the filter press sooner and builds up on he syrup pans. We also found more foaming of the sap. All this adds up the time to “ put a fork in it”! So we did. We actually had quite a good season making 483 gallons of syrup on our 1050 taps.

Now the cleanup process begins.

We now are 5 days into a continuous sap run! We’ve never had more than 3 days of continuous flow in 30 years. Our monitoring system does show that the rate of flow is diminishing and could stop by tomorrow. The sap is still quite clear which is somewhat surprising considering the very warm temperatures ( 70-80 ).

We made our first barrel of dark robust syrup yesterday due to the warming sap. All the rest remains Amber Rich. We now have surpassed 0.4 gal of syrup per tap which is very respectable. Our goal is to reach .5 gal of syrup per tap.

A drop in temperature is forecast for this weekend so that could prolong the season.

In talking to several other syrup makers, those on gravity systems like buckets and bags are getting very little sap whereas high vacuum systems still produce sap.

Check back to see what happens next!

Our unseasonably cold weather has not given us much sap over the last 2 weeks.We are entering a period of predicted 60s and 70s which if it lingers all week as predicted will likely end our season👎. However yesterday, we transitioned from 20s at night to 40s over by 10 am. This unleashed a sap flow greater than any we’ve seen in 30 yrs! We had sap flow over 200 gal. per hour for 30 hrs! We are making Amber Rich syrup with fantastic maple flavor! This photo is one taken by my daughter Erica who was responsible for pumping the sap to the Sugarhouse.