From 10:00 Sunday morning until 6:00 Monday morning, we collected between 2200 and 2500 gallons of sap from our nearly 1000 taps. Typically we consider getting one gallon of sap per tap to be a pretty good run. To get an average of almost two and a half gallons is something we've never seen in the 25 years we've been making syrup. At the peak of the run we were collecting 180 gallons of sap per hour!
We continue to be amazed by the quantity of sap that we are gathering so early in the season. As previously posted, we've never made syrup in February. By March 1st we were up to 105 gallons! Yesterday we made 40 gallons of Grade A Dark Robust syrup, bringing our total 145 gallons.
The forecast for this upcoming week predicts temperatures will return to more seasonally normal levels with highs in the 30's. The 15 day forecast looks good for continued syrup production. Below is Paul Douglas' temperature predictions. We look for days that straddle the freezing point. You can see looking at the chart below that a shift of 5-10 degrees can make a big difference in potential sap flows. From Wednesday to Wednesday we might have perfect weather if it is slightly warmer than predicted or things might freeze up and we won't get any sap if it is cooler than predicted. Time will tell!
