From our forest, one drop at a time.
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!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LORI!
5900 gallons of sap so far to date! Big freeze tonight!
We are firing up the evaporator today, 2nd cook this season. I am anticipating a good run through Wednesday , then it sounds like temperatures will tumble down to almost single digits for short time.
We will be adding a “BLOG” page soon for updates, activity & ideas.
To Start, We are proud Grandparents of a brand new baby boy. His name is Nolan Neil Altmann. born on Tuesday the 13th. We are Thrilled!
With that happening Mother Nature must have know what was coming because she sent a blast of arctic air to freeze things up with a little snow from Thursday through Monday resulting in a complete shut down so we could travel south and meet little Nolan.
The first run produced 3000 gallons of sap, we hauled some away and also boiled up 35 gallons of syrup and things look good for a late November run this week.
Thank You Jeff, Paul and Dean for helping out getting things started! Also thank you everyone for checking in and we’ll keep things updated.>
A brief update…
Filled the evaporator/feed tank on Tuesday (our season officially began January 27th with tapping) and cooked all day Wednesday. collected 1775 gallons of crystal clear sap so far.
