Thursday, February 23, 2012

Off To A Quick Start

If you've got an ear for maple news, you may have seen or heard some of the recent stories that were popping up on the radio and television over the past few days. With the noticeably mild weather and the taste of pancakes fresh on their tongues after Shrove Tuesday, people are thinking about syrup time! Many news stories featured local sugarmakers being rushed off their feet trying to get ready for a season that seems to be squarely upon us.

We are happy to report that the gorgeous weekend weather combined with lots of helping hands from family allowed us to now have the majority of our trees tapped! We've been working hard checking over and repairing our 30 km tubing system, and it is tight and ready for the flow to begin. The sap ran lightly on Wednesday, and when we measured the sugar content of the sap, it was quite high at 2.6%. Looking at our charts from previous years, that level of sweetness doesn't usually occur until close to mid-season, anywhere from Mar 15 to 30! We hope to collect more sap on Thursday, and then have enough to "sweeten the pans" - an old-time syrup makers expression for the first boil of the season. It won't be long before we have fresh syrup for sale - we'll let you know as soon as it's ready!

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