Archive

 

Sap Flowing!

by Mary 3/20/2019 7:46:00 AM

Spring has arrived in the sugarbush with the sap finally flowing. By this time last year, we had made over 100 gallons of maple syrup. What a difference a year can make! As of yesterday, we have about 1200 gallons of sap to boil - more to add today, with highs in the mid 40's. We look forward to boiling and tasting this years maple syrup. 

Today we'll continue to walk the sap lines, identifying and repairing any loose fittings or leaks. These repairs will give us our maximum vacuum pressure, which increases the sap yield dramatically.  The snow pack is still deep in the woods  - this should help extend our late season.

Here is the extended forecast for our area - looks promising for sap flow.

  

More snow - waiting for sap flow

by Mary 3/10/2019 11:24:00 AM

Since the last post, we have finished putting in all the taps and hooked up the releaser where the sap flows into the final tank, deep in the woods. We estimate having 1050 taps - up a little bit from previous years.We're hopeful the deep snowpack, increased number of taps and improved tubing configuration leads to a banner year of maple syrup production.

 

 

It looks like we may not see much sap flow until the third week in March - quite different than the past years. Though we will have a warmup this week and rain the temperatures cool down again for many days. At this rate, we may be making maple syrup the end of April! A record amount of snow fell in February and we had another 5- 6" last night - we're running out of room to put the snow! March is also our third snowiest month. Let's hope Minnesota has a gradual thaw or there will be significant flooding.

Here is the latest link to the forecast from meteorologist Paul Douglas at the StarTribune:

 

 

 

Lots of snow and no flow

by Mary 4/17/2018 8:56:00 AM

Receiving a record 18" of heavy snow, high winds and temps below freezing this past weekend, sap flow has once again come to a halt. On a positive note, we were able to spend the time fixing a leak in our flue pan. We should be ready to process sap again without anymore leakage onto the sugarhouse floor. 

We've only reached 50 degrees once this spring, so we're optimistic we still have several days of solid sap flow and more syrup. It's been a unique year and definitely the latest we've ever been making maple syrup in our 25 years. Here is the forecast for the rest of April - we're all ready for warm temperatures and no more snow!