Our January 25th - 27th Tapping Crew
Logan, Daniel, Josh C., Josh H., Whitney, Ethan, Brenton, Andy, Jenny and Mike
A BIG THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!!
Double-click on any picture below for a larger image
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The preparation for the 2008 season started a little late due to the leaves staying on the trees until mid-November 2007. Mike started by checking the main lines, which seemed to have only minor damage. We took advantage of warm January weather to pull the lateral lines (the tubing that goes from the trees to the main lines) out of the blanket of limbs and leaves, remove the plugs from the spiles and do repairs and upgrades on the tubing system.
The squirrel population must be down, for our tubing system had only very slight damage (squirrels like to chew holes in the tubing). Josh Hall, Brenton and Mike were able to check the entire system tree to tree during the warm spell. When we are able to spend time checking and repairing the system before we tap, the tapping goes much quicker.
Mid-January saw colder temps, which resulted in Mike and Caleb spending some time skiing and snowboarding at Paoli Peaks in the next county west of us, Orange County. Mike told Roger in the ski equipment shop that good January skiing weather is also good sap weather. A good hard freeze helps everyone.
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We started tapping on January 25th with 3 crews and on January 26th had five tappers running for most of the day. This enabled us to get done with the large back sugarbush area and the middle sugarbush in 12 hours total tapping time, which is surely a record. On January 27th we should easily be able to finish the front, the last area to tap. Then we will fire up the vacuum pumps and start checking the system for vacuum leaks and other problems.
It looks like the first sap will run on January 27th around noon - 1 PM, with January 28th - 29th being prime sap days. The sap should run all night on January 28th under ideal weather conditions, fresh tapholes a hard freeze a few days earlier and rain in the forecast. We are planning on having the first boil of the 2008 syrup making season on January 28th. Check back often for updates on our progress.
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We boiled our first sap on January 31st. The season started with the ground and trees frozen like last year, but not quite as hard. The warm-up that followed gave a pretty good early run and by February 6th we had drawn off 222 gallons of syrup. Apparently, the drought last year did not affect the trees - a natural forest does have an advantage over open fields since the forest soil doesn't dry out as rapidly.
The big job now is checking the tubing system for vacuum leaks. The vacuum is strong enough to check the system at the pump to see if the overall system needs to be checked. We have seven independent systems feeding four collection areas. Our crew seems to enjoy finding the leaks and noticing the increase in vacuum after they are repaired. Three of our systems seem to be OK, 3 are in fair shape and one has major problems that we haven't quite figured out, even leaving Mike, the engineer, stumped. You can only check the tubing system when the sap is running and there are always new problems discovered each day. Limbs falling due to high winds, deer crashing through the tubing, squirrels chewing holes in it and even fatigue failure of the spiles and T's are some of the problems we experience with the tubing.
We have had some great fire stokers this year - Dan and Josh S., Josh C., Brenton, Andy, Logan and Caleb. So far, the evening workers have rotated pretty good so that no one is worn out and we usually boil during the daylight hours when the sap is running. Mike can usually get a load of sap in between drawing off syrup if he make good time. The old John Deere is still running pretty good.
The syrup quality in 2008 is excellent. We have made medium and dark amber and the last draw off was Grade B, due to the 60 degree temperatures. We bottle nearly all of the syrup while it is still hot from being drawn off from the evaporator, which is the best way when you have enough help. Mike personally checks each batch for quality before bottling and he does nearly all the actual bottling while the fire stokers keep the nearby evaporator running and generating more syrup to bottle.
The forecast is for cold weather on Sunday, February 10th, followed by a slow warm up and fronts moving through, which is ideal sap weather. Check back in a week or so for further updates on the 2008 maple syrup season.
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Tonight the sap is still running since the temperature is rising even though night is falling. The night runs are the most difficult since nothing can be checked very well (except on a clear night with a full moon) and the tanks can be quite full by morning. The sap should run pretty hard all night and until about 6AM Monday morning, essentially a 40 hour run.
The ground is still cold with much ice on the northern slopes of the hills. We were able to check most all of our tubing system today and got the front sugarbush vacuum up to a decent level. This was the area we referred to before as having severe problems with the vacuum system. The front had the most squirrel damage - one section of 1/2" mainline had at least a dozen chew holes over a 40' section - this took quite a while to locate. Some other problems we found today were from limbs falling and breaking T's, spiles cracking due to the cold weather and other spiles somehow working their way loose from the tapholes.
At this point of the season we have made 350 gallons of syrup and should have 60 - 70% of the season remaining. Another cold front is coming through the first part of next week which should charge the trees for another great run through the first weekend of the festival. We should be in the full production mode during the festival.
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It is 14 degrees this morning at 7 AM, which is a good rest for the trees. We are up to 460 gallons of syrup drawn off through Monday and expect to get our next sap this Friday. The cold period also allows us to rest and make final preparations for the festival.
On Sunday Pat Hynes visited our sugarhouse while we were in full production. Josh Hall and Josh Calloway were firing the evaporator and Mike was bottling syrup. Pat commented regarding Josh and Josh, "Man, these guys are working their tails off!!! Where did you find these guys?"
Pat himself has worked very hard to finish production of our 3rd music CD - "Evening Reflections", which will be available this Saturday, the first day of the festival. It is also available to be ordered year round on the website.
That is the essence of making maple syrup. You work very hard, but it is enjoyable and fulfilling due to the nature of the work. True, it is not for everyone, but when it gets in your blood, you can't wait to tap the trees, collect and boil the sap and even bottle the syrup.
We have the same spirit with our festival staff. Leane and Carla have worked many months getting the festival organized and supervising the endless jobs that need to be performed. Many people have worked long hours under difficult weather conditions to make our maple syrup and the festival an enjoyable event for our guests.
We hope to see you this weekend or next!!!!
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We woke up this morning to 14 degrees and 10" of snow, with it still snowing. The county has been declared a state of emergency. Quite a contrast to the warm weather last weekend!!! We had planned to re-tap today and had a large crew of our most experienced workers lined up but they were unable to get here and the conditions were to rough for the work. It looks like this year may end by March 15th unless we are able to re-tap next weekend.
We consider re-tapping, or drilling all new tapholes, when the original tapholes are 6 weeks old and more sap weather is forecast. The longest we have seen a taphole last is 7 weeks. After that the tapholes will dry up, even though the tree may still be running sap. Re-tapping does not take nearly as long as the original tapping and can be done in targeted areas where the trees are a little colder and will run a little longer.
We have drawn off over 700 gallons of syrup. The festival was a great success with a large crowd attending the 2nd weekend. The warm weather made some places quite muddy, but we were able to cope with it. We have just about caught up on our shipping and clean up. The Monday after the festival Mike was out getting sap before dawn and then had help with the boiling until 1:30 AM Tuedsday morning. When the sap is running we need to collect and boil as soon as possible.
We'd like to thank everyone who attended the festival this year. we work very hard to have an interesting and historical festival with good food and wholesome family activities. Due to the rugged nature and the weather during making maple syrup we realize the fesitval is not for everyone. We like having the festival while we are actually making maple syrup so our visitors can watch and understand what is involved.
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Following the snow, we managed to re-tap most of our trees in 3 days. Only one area with a hot, western facing slope, was not re-tapped. This is an area we have named "Brenton's Hill."
There were 2 good runs that followed. It would have been nice to have re-tapped before the snow, as a huge run followed the warm up. We were able to collect some of this run in the middle and back areas.
Re-tapping in March gives some unusual conditions. A new taphole will be very sensitive to changes in barometric pressure. After receiving 7" of rain over a 2 day period (not long after the 10" of snow!!), the sap ran 600-800 gallons. The sap was mixed with half rain water in the tanks and therefore dumped. One day when the temperature was in the 60's, the sap started to run as the weather cooled in the afternoon. This followed a light freeze the night before.
We have to work extra hard boiling all the sap that runs during the warmer weather and cleaning tanks to insure high syrup quality. This is when we usually make Grade B syrup, although if the run is heavy we can make Grade A Dark Amber. There was a good freeze Easter morning (26 degrees) and another should occur on Monday. The last sap should be collected on March 25th. Next weekend we will starting "pulling up", taking the spiles out of the trees, cleaning tubing, overhauling equipment and getting ready for the 2009 season.
We had our logger friend, Mike Brown, come over and drop a few trees for lumber for some 2009 building projects. He also cut some ash and pignut hickory trees for firewood since we were low on fuel for the extended syrup making season. Plans for the 2009 festival include an upper level parking field (hopefully less muddy), new building for the meat grilling area, and expansions to the sugarhouse, including better viewing area for the evaporator. We will keep you posted as to our progress and look forward to seeing everyone at the 2009 festival.
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