We processed 1100 gallons of sap last evening into 26 gallons of tasty dark amber syrup.  The sap flows so far have been a tad slower than we would like.  The 1100 gallons is just slightly more than one gallon per tap.   Sunday night stayed above freezing and when that happens the rate of sap flow decreases.  Monday night dropped down into the low 20's, so we should have decent flows as soon as the weather warms up.  The 10-day forecast continues to look promising for sap flow.  However, at times the 10-day forecast is often like a mirage in the desert.  The weather is always good four days out, then some front moves through or a weather system stalls, preventing the good weather from getting here--it just stays four days out on the calendar!  

We have updated which sizes of bottles are currently available under the Buy Syrup tab.  As always, we will sell the syrup on a first come, first served basis.  Remember, it doesn't have an expiration date and doesn't need to be refrigerated until it is opened.  

We made our first syrup of the season yesterday.  Our first boil was on Thursday, March 27th.  We didn't get any finished syrup during the first boil because it takes quite a bit of sap to establish the concentration gradient in the pan.  We collected about 1100 gallons of sap on Friday and Saturday, allowing us to boil on Sunday afternoon.  After about an hour of boiling we had our first draw off.  It was a huge draw off of nearly 20 gallons of delicious dark amber syrup.  We finished the day with 44 gallons of syrup.  We bottled up most of the syrup into a variety of different size containers. 

It is impossible to predict how good the season is going to be.  There are so many variables: the duration of the freeze/thaw cycle, the soil moisture level, precipitation during the season, and frost in the ground.  The initial sap flows have been encouraging and the 10 day weather forecast is promising.  We are crossing our fingers for a successful season!

The sap ran for the first time last week on Thursday and Friday and we are optimistic that we might have a decent season.  The weather wasn't perfect for sap flow; Friday was overcast and windy, but we still collected about half of a gallon per tap.  We are hoping that this means that the trees have plenty of access to moisture in the soil, allowing for strong early flows.  The past two seasons have been very dry in the fall, giving us weak early season runs.  

The weather forecast for the next 10 days looks promising.  We are hoping to have our first syrup real soon!