We anticipate bottling within the next two weeks when the production season is over.  If you order online and pay for your order, we will contact you via email  regarding shipping date. Send us an email at dsomers@citlink.net if you have any questions, requests, or special orders.

 The good sap production during this protracted warm weather has been a very pleasant surprise. Colder weather is forecast for the next few days which will lengthen the season further.

With over 2200 gallons of sap to process and still flowing, we'll have more delicious syrup made this weekend. The temperatures have been in the 60's (delightful, but definitely not normal) the last two days and when the sun is out, the sap surges. One night below freezing, rapidly melting snow deep in the woods and cold air off of the lake provided the necessary stimulus to keep our season going.

It's a wonderful time to be in the woods, particularly in the morning, as the nuthatches and cardinals call, geese and whistling swans migrate back, pileated woodpeckers pound the trees and even a barred owl made an appearance last night.  The ice will probably be off the lake within a week and syrup season will soon come to a close.

We'll have a reminder we are still in March with a cold snap later this week, along with rain and possibly snow showers. How long will the sap continue to flow? It's always a guess, but most likely, we're nearing the end with the unusually warm temperatures and eventually budding trees.

 Yesterday was an amazing day/evening in the sugarhouse as we produced 75 gallons of delicious maple syrup. We had approximately 3200 gallons of 2% sap to process from the last 2 days and thankfully the Reverse Osmosis machine concentrated the sap to 8%. Between firing the evaporator with wood every 10-15 minutes, watching the syrup thermometer for the correct temperature of 219 degrees, testing the sugar content for 66.9% (Brix), filtering the syrup through the filter press to remove sugar sand, grading and tasting the maple syrup, :-) and filling another barrel of syrup kept us busy all day long. Whew!!  But, this is what we look forward to each year and know the season can be short, but sweet!

Now, the important weather information. We had a low of 31 last night and the forecast today is a high of 48, becoming sunny. Tonight the low will be somewhere near 33 (probably lower in the woods and cool breeze off the lake) with sun and 65 on Friday! Crazy warm “April”weather in March! The sap should flow well this afternoon and even faster tomorrow.  That being said, one is wise to never predict sap flow - just be amazed by the awesome flow or lack of it.

For any of you science geeks who want to know more specifics on sap:gallon of sugar, here is some interesting info from the University of Vermont Procter Maple Research Center, where they know “all things maple”. Their website is fascinating if you are interested in anything related to maple trees, sap, research . . . http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc/

   The Jones "Rule of 86" :

   The gist of the rule is that if one divides 86 by the sugar content of sap, you can           estimate the amount of sap required to produce a gallon of syrup. 

                  S=86/X andW=S-1 

 Where: S = the initial volume of sap (or concentrate) required to produce 1 gallon of syrup 

X = the starting sap (or concentrate) sugar concentration in °Brix.
W = the amount of water to be boiled off to produce 1 gallon of syrup

  Without delving too deeply into the chemistry of sugar solutions or the math, a much closer approximation of the amount of sap (or concentrate) needed to produce one gallon of syrup at a density 66.9°Brix, the formula needs to be slightly adjusted again.  (We concentrate our sap to 8%)

S = 88.2/X-0.32 and W = S-1

     °Brix     S (gal) 

       8.0     10.71