Our unusual weather conditions surprised and intrigued meteorologists and naturalists alike during March. The ice on Whaletail Lake went out March 5th, the earliest we ever recorded. Five days later the lake froze again when Arctic weather descended upon us. The sap flow ceased and didn't restart for 10 days! The lake ice vanished for the second (and final!) time today. We make no predictions about the lake or the weather.

With the recent warmup, the trees responded with sap flows of over 2 gallons per tap on the last two "runs". We are on pace for a new record of maple syrup production. Our sap remains at 2.5% sugar, which is average for our sugarbush.  This translates to 34 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. The quality of the finished syrup has been outstanding, with rich amber color and unmistakeable smooth maple flavor that lingers on the palate (if you let it linger!)

Our next update will be with a final total - stay tuned!

Our unusual weather conditions during March have surprised and intrigued meteorologists and naturalists alike.  The ice on Whaletail Lake went out on March 5th, the earliest we have recorded.  Five days later, the lake froze over again when Arctic weather descended upon us. The sap flow ceased and didn't restart for 13 days! Today, the lake ice vanished for the second time. I make no predictions about the lake - or the weather!

With the recent warmup, the trees have responded with sap flows of over 2 gallons per tap on the last 2 "runs"! We consider this to be a great flow, - normally, we might get 1/2-1 gallon of sap/tap. We are on pace for setting a new, all time high in maple syrup yield!

Our sap remains at 2.5% sugar, which is average for our sugarbush. This translate to 34 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.  The quality of the finished syrup has been outstanding, with rich amber color and unmistakable smooth maple flavor that lingers on the palate (if you let it linger!)

We  are excited for our busy day tomorrow, anticipating record syrup production, as we have over 2000 gallons of sap to process.!

We've been stuck in a cold rut, for what seems like a very long time. After an amazing run of sap on March 6-7, the temperatures plummeted and all lines froze rock solid. There wasn't anything to do but bottle maple syrup, so we're now well-supplied for filling orders.

The forecast looks very promising for sap flow and making more maple syrup for the next6-7 days. With Spring arriving on Monday, March 20th, we hope we've experienced the last of winter's cold, but being the month of March, temperature swings are common. Here is the latest temperature graph, from Paul Douglas' blog in the StarTribune: