Notes from the Sugarhouse...
Musings, because long hours of boiling leave us looking for something to do...
It was an unexpected sap run today following another snowstorm keeping the stop/start season plugging along. I’ve said it a few times before, this next week looks promising for spring to finally get a foothold and get the sap chugging. At this point our wood supply is getting a bit lower than I’d like, mental note to try to put more up this year, so we’ll see how things shake out.
It’s been a dark syrup year for us. Interesting to talk to other sugarmakers, some of whom are having a predominantly “light” year. We all just take what we get, and lots of people have expressed their preference for dark syrup lately. It’s all pretty good.
After a prolonged absence and epic snowstorm that left us with 32″ of snow, things are warming back up slowly and we had enough of a run today for a short boil. The sugar content of the sap is back up to 3%. We’re prepping for the annual Sugarmakers Openhouse this coming Saturday…the weather forecast is iffy for a decent sap run before mid-day on Saturday, so we may not have anything to boil, but we’ll still be open, serving waffles and samples…with all the snow maybe we’ll even get a batch of sugar on snow going!
Well, so goes Vermont in the “springtime”. After a few on-again, off-again boils we’ve now hunkered down for a blizzard. I just hauled myself inside from the first round of plowing, there’s a least a foot on the ground and still coming fast. After record warm January and Febuary, we’ve had to endure below zero days and now a major March snowstorm. Well, hopefully it won’t run much before the snow melts off…we might not be able to find the buckets!
After a record warm February, we grudgingly went ahead and tapped last week. I guess I need to let go of the old Vermont rule that you tap on Town Meeting Day (1st Tuesday in March). Or right after Town Meeting day, since we’re always up to our necks in budgets, new dump trucks and pot-luck lunch on Town Meeting day. Anyways, we had two pretty big sap runs this week and made a quick 8 gallons or so of syrup, but things changed quickly. Tonight is forecast to be below zero, and stay cold through the weekend. But Monday looks to warm again into the 40’s with good sugaring conditions through most of next week.
Our sugarhouse computer had some problems when I tried to get it fired up this year, so I had to get a new one and set it up, but now we’re all up and running with sap levels and temperature being recorded in 15 minute intervals. This is a great tool for us as we’re boiling away, watching that sap level drop.
For now, aside from the empty buckets swinging from the trees in the cold wind, we’ll enjoy the rest of Feb. vacation doing other things. The sap will be flowing again soon enough.