Scroll down for additional entries about the current syrup season. Entries so far include:
December 23, 2008
January 1, 2009
January 16th
January 26th
February 8th
1st REPORT - GETTING READY FOR THE 2009 SYRUP MAKING SEASON
December 23, 2008
We are now getting ready for the 2009 maple syrup season. Due to Hurricane Ike, which hit here for 2 hours on September 14th, there is a little more than average to do in the woods. There was no rain but the wind was over 80 mph from 1 - 3 PM. This resulted in a number of trees being uprooted, snapped in half or damaged. Normally, strong wind will damage a few defective trees; this wind damaged many healthy ones. We probably spent 20 - 30 hours clearing debris in the woods to uncover our tubing system. As you may have noticed if you have attended the festival, we have large piles of firewood at the sugarhouse. We probably have enough clean-up in the woods to provide firewood for 5 seasons. We have cut some of the nicer trees that were damaged into lumber. The estimate is that at least 20 large 3-tap maples were lost and probably as many 1 and 2 tap trees also. The larger the tree the more possibility of damage due to the large "sail" area available to the wind due to a large crown. On September 14th the trees still had a crown of green leaves, providing more surface area for the wind to affect. Over time the woods will recover, new spaces will open up, our work in the woods will turn up some soil, so new trees, mostly maple, can take hold. Overall, the maples seemed to tolerate the wind better than the cherry, poplar and hickory. But in some areas the wind was even too much for the maples. If weather permits, we are going to tap some trees around January 10th. This will be the earliest we have ever tapped, although in 1988 we made syrup from sap that was purchased on January 3rd. The maple trees are actually running sap now. During our clean-up on December 13th, a 12" maple that blew over was trimmed, and the sap came pouring out. We have a new area for grilling the chicken and pork chops for the festival and should have another 900 square feet of dining space opened up for the 2009 festival. We have been using the lumber cut from the trees that blew down for these building projects. Our crew has also been checking the vacuum pump engines and tappers and we are overhauling the evaporator - all in preparation for the upcoming season. We look forward to the new season and will post our usual updates more or less weekly as the season progresses. Check the information about our newest venture on our FARM VACATION page here on the website.
2nd REPORT - CONTINUED PREPARATION PROGRESS
January 1, 2009
We have been making steady progress on getting our tubing ready for the 2009 season. The afternoons have been relatively warm and sunny, which makes for good progress since the tubing has some flexibility and is easier to pull up out of the leaves to check and repair. We continue to find that we have lost some good trees, especially at the top of the hills in the back area. Nearly every tree that has been uprooted, snapped in half or had crown damage, has the downed portion of the tree pointing north. The wind came from the south when Hurricane Ike went through so this is a logical finding. In fact, after salvaging over 4,000 board feet of lumber from the uprooted trees, I can't think of one that wasn't blown over pointing north. I estimate that we have lost about 3%, or 120 taps from storm damage; this is by far the largest lost from any single event since we began making syrup in 1983. An equal number of maples were uprooted or snapped in half, leaving only the log part of the tree sticking up like a flagpole. Immediately after the syrup season we plan to get Mike Brown, a professional logger, to help with salvaging the logs for lumber or firewood. Yesterday our 4 man crew had 2 chain saws running for most of the day just to provide access to the remaining good maples. Many maples had crowns from downed tops lying around the base part of the unaffected trees where we need to tap, with green wood this makes access impossible. We are planning on having all of the tubing checked and repaired by this Saturday, January 3rd, and may start tapping the middle area around January 7 -8. This plan is tentative because at this time of year the weather can radically and quickly change, fronts can develop suddenly and therefore, our work plans can change. An interesting note after a New Year's Eve dinner at Cracker Barrel: They have historically been the world's largest retailer of maple syrup by selling 1,000 gallons of 100% pure maple syrup per day. They are now selling only "Natural Syrup". This is a blend of 55% pure maple syrup and 45% corn syrup. We noticed during the spring of 2008 that they were discounting the 100% pure maple syrup. My guess is that due to a severe shortage of pure maple syrup, this step of selling blended syrup was taken to stretch the supply. Log Cabin Syrup started out with 25% pure maple syrup and went down slowly over the years to its current 2%. It will be interesting to see how Cracker Barrel changes its ratio over time. Supply of pure maple syrup is projected to remain limited for at least the next 3 years.
3rd REPORT - TAPPING PROGRESSES
January 16, 2009
We began tapping the middle sugarbush (we have 3 large areas of trees that we call the front, middle and back) on January 10th. At times we had 5 tappers running and were able to finish the middle and back areas in 2 working days. There was a little sap run and on January 13th we had our first boil. There was a lot to get ready on the evaporator and some planned repairs were not quite complete. However, for 2 nights, sap was boiled and Mike even drank a few glasses of the maple tea made from the "so sweet" sap of the evaporator.
Mike bottled some syrup from last year on January 14th while the evaporator was running to heat the sugarhouse. It was very cold - around 13 degrees F - and he had to leave the doors of the evaporator open to be warm enough.
We have had some colder weather without snow cover which means the trees and ground will freeze very hard. We have noticed that when the ground freezes hard the trees can actually thaw before the ground. This can delay the trees ability to pick up water from the roots, thus limiting the sap run. Most of the remainder of January is forecast to have colder weather. The cold will keep the trees in a frozen, suspended state until the weather warms up a bit. We may have some sap on January 21 - 22, but the highs are forecast to be around freezing, so this is not certain.
We should finish tapping this weekend and then we will start to check the tubing system for leaks. Some areas that we have already checked for squirrel activity have had new damage. The squirrels will climb on the trees and chew off every spile, so some squirrel hunting is probably in the near future. It looks like January will be the month to get everything ready, then we should start having some good sap runs in February.
We should have plenty of syrup this year since our friend David Abner from Jackson County will be bringing us his sap to boil. We purchase sap from individuals, or boil sap on shares. We have enjoyed working with David and his group. We always enjoy others getting involved in the historical winter/spring farming activity called sapping, sugaring or making maple syrup.
4TH REPORT - FIRST 2009 SYRUP BOTTLED!!!
January 26, 2009
We have just about finished tapping; there is one small area in between the front and middle sugarbushes with about 20 trees that we still need to tap. The systems have been somewhat checked; there was a small run which enabled us to do some checking. Usually we need to go over the tubing systems 3 times before we can make progress in getting the vacuum to a good level. Saturday we had a pretty good boil for a few hours and drew off the first syrup for 2009. Sunday was very cold so we called off the crews. Mike bottled all the syrup that was made on Saturday and was forced to take 10 minute breaks inside every hour to fix some hot tea and warm up. The sugarhouse is much colder without the evaporator running!!! The first batch of bottled syrup is medium amber and of excellent quality. We may have set a record this year by breaking 5 drill bits while tapping. This was because the trees were frozen and particularly hard while we were tapping. Also, the ground was frozen with no snow cover and it was easy to slip while tapping, thus breaking the bits. Now there is snow on the ground and more is forecast for tonight through Wednesday. Then, a warming trend is forecast starting on Saturday. It is different for us to be collecting sap with snow on the ground. Most of our tubing is on the ground, so with more than a few inches of snow, it is impossible to check it. We have had runs with over 2' of snow on the ground. We have had to shovel the snow out of the collection tanks and sometimes start the vacuum pumps. The snow keeps everything cold and provides some moisture, both of which are normally desired conditions. After a cold spell with snow the sap runs quite well when it warms up. Our Farm Vacation guests at the Sweet Retreat cottage have been a big help and have enjoyed a break from their own routines as well as learning about how to make maple syrup. There is going to be a lot of activity here in the next 6 weeks. We hope to make at least 500 gallons of syrup, we may retap the trees, we expect 6 more groups of Farm Vacation guests and should complete (at least as far as having a roof) a 900 square foot addition for more dining space and a 3rd serving line for our delicious festival food.
5th REPORT - AFTER THE SNOWSTORM
February 8, 2009
We
were able to dig out of the icy conditions this weekend.There were a lot of limbs that dropped on the
tubing system which caused many breaks, including main line problems.A few trees, probably weakened by Hurricane
Ike last September, were overloaded with ice and fell, at least 4 good
maples.It is somewhat difficult to walk
in the woods.
We
started Saturday with about 5 inches of snow capped with an inch of ice.While the sun was out run-off was heavy.Since the ground was still frozen, this
resulted in large ice flows in the creek that runs through the sugarbush.There were even some ice jams in the
creek.Dynamic weather!!We boiled for 2 days and drew off about 60
gallons of syrup this weekend.
In
addition to the ice damage, the squirrels have been active and causing damage.We found at least a dozen damaged spots where
the squirrel had climbed up the tree and chewed through the spile.We spent most of the weekend walking the
system, checking for major damage and were able to get the vacuum level
somewhat restored.
The
forecast is for warmer weather through Wednesday which should help thaw out the
ground and trees.During the week of the
15th, great sap weather is predicted.Every night it is supposed to freeze and the
highs during the day are forecast to be in the upper 30’s to lower 40’s.
Sunday
was a very active day here during the afternoon.In addition to our sap, 3 other individuals
brought us sap – one from Bowling Green, Kentucky, one from close by in Washington County and one from Jackson County,
Indiana.Mike cranked up the Reverse Osmosis
machine for the first time to reduce boiling time since we had a lot of sap on
hand.It almost felt like a festival day
since there was so much activity.
The
sap should run today and tomorrow, perhaps even through Wednesday until the
next freeze on Thursday.Sap can run several
days in a row when a warm up follows a prolonged freeze.
In
addition to being busy with sap we are gearing up for the festival and have
many new additions to the program this year.Leane, our girls and our wonderful set-up crew have been busy preparing
the festival buildings and doing the many jobs necessary to get ready for the
crowds.Please check the OUR FESTIVAL
page for information regarding the festival and scheduled events.
LEANE AND MICHAEL'S SUGARBUSH 321 N. GARRISON HOLLOW RD. SALEM, IN 47167 1- 812-967-4491 OR TOLL FREE 1-877-841-8851 EMAIL sugrbush@wcrtc.net VISIT US ON FACEBOOK AT LEANE N MICHAEL GOERING