Billion Drops Sugarbush

I forgot to hit the “publish ” button on this post, so I will now…

Well we went on a vacation trip on the 17th of may. we returned on the 27th to find that it did nothing but rain and had about 25 trees down from high storm winds. Our high pump and vacuum main lines were ripped down and a lot of lateral lines torn loose as well. Many were snapped at the base and also numerous uprooted ones due to ground saturation. Countless “widow makers” everywhere also. The ones I dislike most are the tall “leaners” they are difficult and dangerous to get down. I’m sure I will be working at clean up for the next year or so.

It’s been about 6 years now since we had storm damage and I hope it will hold off for several more!

I will soon be getting things up to date with the year end approaching. Please check back in the next couple weeks as I plan to get caught up with information and up coming plans.

The spring croakers have emerged on Saturday April 6th. I’m finding by experience when that happens, the season is over. The ground has reached the temperature that promotes frogs & forest plants to begin.

Total sap count is 12,600 gallons, A new record!

We’ve added a new page called “Imparting Knowledge“. This page has information of our experience or points of interest.

We have surpassed the sap record. last year was the high of 11,800 gallons. As of this morning it stands at 12, 300 gallons and climbing. Now I can live up to the “Billion Drops” name, YAAAY!

From February 3rd up through today, (April 2nd), 60 days have lapsed. Out of that the forest sap ran a total of 29 days according to my data. We had a lot of freeze ups and a big gap from March 13th through the 25th.

The weather has gone back to normal and we’re getting freezing nights and warm days so the sap has been running again. It is a different taste but I have found a new producer who is taking late season sap for grade B syrup. I understand that it is good for making baked goods & such. This week will be the end for sure for it is time to clean up things and pull taps.

When I gather the data, I’ll report how many days produced since February 4th when we started.

We received about 10” of fresh snow in the last few days. Temperatures have been for the most part below freezing for a week now, 43 today and then into freezing again for a while. Will I start things up again? That’s the question everyone into the syrup business seems to NOT have an answer for. I’ll pull vacuum today and see what happens. It’s been “brown til now” and we’ll see how long it stays white. It could last well into April… it’s happened before!

Everything seems to have gone sower, sap was pretty chunky on Tuesday and down to a trickle so I dumped it on the ground. All the other producers reluctantly put things on hold, they are uncertain of a good sap return.
We hit just shy of 11,000 gallons as of Monday afternoon. That I would consider pretty much average for us. I will add 50 more taps next year to achieve the 12,000 gallon sap goal!

Flow slowed down yesterday so I turned off the vacuum. Today is cold, cloudy and blustery. The forecast looks good through Monday and then after that it’s anyone’s guess.

Yesterday I sent 10 gallons of syrup into the bourbon barrel for about 4-5 months of ageing. It should be ready bottle about mid to late June.

Also I am going to try to infuse an apple smoke flavor into a small batch. If it works out I’ll add it to my line of products for anyone who likes a smoky flavored syrup.

At Wednesday’s sudden evening freeze up a record 1150 gallons of sap had been collected, 6200 gallons total. Also the high temperature of 70 degrees, (a new record) at 2:00 pm plunged to freeze up by 6:00 pm and bottomed out at about 9 degrees later that night. That too is a new record temperature drop ever!

I am getting nervous because the buds are beginning to swell and it’s still February. The forecast is predicting 60’s this weekend again and after that is looks like normal temps after that. We’ll have to keep our fingers crossed!