Indiana Pure Maple Syrup/Annual Maple Syrup Festival

The 2007 season has started at Leane and Michael's Sugarbush!!!

WEEK 4 - CURRENT WEEK

COLD!!COLD!!COLD!!AGAIN!! Our last sap day was Jan 27th. This extended cold period has been good since we do need some winter, but a challenge since there is no sap and working outside is difficult. The forecast now is for some sap to run on Feb 19 - 20, which means it will have been over 20 days since the sap ran.

We are going to finish tapping a small area on Friday Feb 16 and will then be done with the tapping job. This extended cold period without much snow cover means that the trees and ground will be frozen like a brick and will take some time to thaw. This also means the sugar content of the sap should be 2% or greater (which is great for us since it means less sap to make more syrup!), and that the sap runs will be steady and increasing daily as the larger trees begin to thaw out.

The forecast is for warmer weather next week with some rain and great weather for the first festival weekend. It looks like temperatures will remain above freezing at night, which means the sap will run for several days in a row. The longest continuous sap run I have ever seen is 114 hours, 60 - 80 hours straight is not uncommon.

We will need to recheck the entire tubing system when it warms up on Monday and Tuesday next week, then concentrate on collecting the sap, boiling and bottling. We should have plenty of fresh syrup for the festival and it should be fairly light. Sleep will probably be at a premium next week while we attempt to keep up with the sap flow and bottle syrup for the festival.

Our crew has been waiting to go full throttle, with perhaps too much down time. Daniel broke his shoulder playing football and needed to give the tapping duties to Matt. Daniel still helped in the woods and the team nearly completed tapping the front on the weekend of Feb 10 and 11. This coming weekend of Feb 17 and 18 we will be getting ready for the festival and preparing for the sap run next week.

WEEK 3

COLD, COLD, COLD!! That's been the weather here since the last report. In fact, last weekend, Feb 3 and 4, we called off working in the woods due to cold temps and gusty winds. Before the cold came through, we were able to get 85% tapped and had enough sap to complete the first check of the tubing system.

With great effort on Sunday Jan 28, Brenton and I got the last 430 gallons of unfrozen sap from the woods. Then we boiled everything down and drew off 45 gallons of medium and light amber syrup, all of which has been bottled.

How will this cold affect the season? We need some winter so everything will freeze and the sugar in the trees will go into the sap. Also, a slow thaw means a great, steady stream of sap for the late Feb/early March period. This is the time when we have traditionally made the most syrup. A fast warmup is not as good even after this wintry period; the freeze thaw weather is needed for good sap runs.

It now looks like our next boil will be the weekend of Feb 17. If there is any of a warmup at all, we should have plenty of syrup for the festival and we will be bottling the syrup as fast as we can make it. There should be plenty of sap to boil at the festival also.

Now is a time to wait for warmer weather, cut firewood and stay warm. Mike has bottled quarts and half gallons of 2007 syrup and the quality is excellent. Same prices as last year. Let us know if you need some before the festival.

WEEK 2

On Saturday, January 27th, we finished tapping the large, rugged area known as "the back." This is the sugarbush furthest from the sugarhouse. A little sap was running and we were able to check the tubing for air leaks. Helpers included Daniel, Matt and Logan.

We were in 2 crews, Daniel and Matt, and Logan and Mike. After about an hour, Logan went back to get the tapper to tap a few trees that were missed and Mike continued to check lines. Then, after quite some time - about an hour and a half - and a lot of yelling, Logan showed up when we were all done tapping the back. Sound travels oddly in the hills and Logan had spent most of that time checking lines in the middle tubing system. (He did find some leaks, which was helpful). He thought I was in this middle area, even though I was 1/4 mile west. When we finally got together Logan promptly fell about 4 feet backwards off a large beech tree that was down, landing flat on his back!

After that misadventure, we hauled in most of the sap that had run, boiled until 1 AM and drew off 20 gallons of excellent syrup. Brenton and Logan helped with the boiling, which helps Mikes stiff old back considerably.

On Sunday, January 28th, Brenton and Mike went out and got the last 430 gallons of sap that was waiting in the tanks in the woods. It was 15 degrees and blowing heavy snow off and on. Winter has returned!!! We boiled off all the sap and the warmth from the evaporator was quite welcome. We made another 25 gallons of syrup, the last ten gallons of which was light amber (we usually make a little medium amber and mostly dark amber and Grade B.) All this first run has been bottled and now the forecast for the next 10 days is for cold winter weather, which means no sap.

We have several men who have started collecting sap this year in Jackson County. They will be brining us sap from about 1,100 tapholes. This will be the first time since 2001 that we have bought sap. We welcome this additional sap since it allows us to produce more syrup. There should be a great run when this cold blast is over and we only have the front area yet to tap to be completely done. We will have the last of the sugarhouse set-up complete by the next sap run with the RO up and running and should be starting into full production.

WEEK 1

On January 19th, we started tapping in the middle section of the sugarbush. That section was completed that day, thanks to 3 tapping crews, consisting of Mike, Daniel, Josh C., Brenton and Josh H. The weather conditions were perfect for tapping and there was some sap running. By the end of the day a modest amount was in the collection tank. Completing the middle area put us at about 1/3 of the way tapped.

Saturday, the 20th, the rugged back area was started and one difficult section was complete, again with 3 crews - Mike, Brenton and Emily, Logan, Josh H. and Caleb. This year was the first time in over 10 years that we had mostly male workers in the woods. Usually teams have had a male/female mix but so far this year, Emily has had the honor of being the only female worker in the woods. Although nearly 1500 tapholes have been drilled, Mike personally drilled less than ten of them, concentrating on directing the teams and locating the best place to put the taphole. The work done on Saturday in the back section of our sugarbush put us at about 1/2 way tapped.

We started tapping earlier this year than normal. We should finish tapping all the areas by January 27th. The weather is still on the cold side; January is always a difficult month to make maple syrup since the days are short with less sunlight time. But it is good to get started so we can concentrate on checking the tubing system for leaks.

On Sunday, January 21st, we got about an inch of ice and snow which is great for the trees. They need the cold temperatures; when the weather warms up and we have some freeze thaw cycles, the sap will run. The immediate forecast is for sap all the rest of this week. Three of our six systems are tapped enough to run the vacuum pumps. We have started checking the mainlines. Mike personally goes over the entire system several times and Brenton has learned to check lines, which is very helpful. The last few years we have had problems with the tubing system and have worked hard this year to upgrade and hopefully improve the performance (increased sap collection).

By tapping early we will consider re-tapping around the end of February if the winter extends into mid-March. The next big announcement will be our first boil of 2007 sap. We will make that announcement as soon as that great moment occurs!!