We have 10 1/2 gallons of syrup bottled for the season now. Since we had 2 1/2 gallons from earlier it means we made 8 gallons in the past 24 hours. Its nice quality syrup — very clear. Boiled until 8:00 pm last night. Then came back at 3:00 am to finish up. It was cold last night, about 18, so even though it is sunny now, it may not warm up soon enough to get more sap today. By afternoon it should be warm enough to drip, but it may not be enough to collect. We will see.
Collected 320 gallons of sap. This sap tested out at 4.1 Brix. Brix is a measure of sweetness. Typically our trees produce sap at 2.5 – 3.0 Brix so today’s sap is much sweeter. And sweeter sap means it takes less gallons of sap to make syrup. While typically we figure 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup with sap at 4.1 it will take much less.
That’s the report from the woods today. Its about time! The weather looks to be breaking from the cold spell. The next week is forecast to be good sap weather: freezing nights, warm sunny days. So if this maple season is going to happen, this is the week. They are collecting now so we don’t have total gallons collected yet. Saturday there was another 6″ – 8″ of snow so its hard getting around the woods again.
MapleAcres Address
George Straka
2005-03-19
Four score and seven years ago, Walter Zander brought forth from these woods maple syrup conceived in hard work and dedicated to the proposition that all people should enjoy maple syrup.
Now we are engaged in the great time of collecting, testing whether that maple or any other maple tree so conceived and so dedicated to giving harvest can long endure. We are met at the time of collecting. We have come to harvest a portion of these woods as a reminder of all who gave of their time and love of the woods to preserve and to produce the way of making maple syrup. It is fitting and proper that we should do this.
Folks will little note, nor really wonder how maple syrup is made, but we can always appreciate the work that goes into such a harvest. It is from these woods under God that produces devotion of the collecting of the maple sap. And the sap collected from the woods, by the family, of the family, of Walter Zander shall not perish from these very mapleacres.
Nothing much has happened the past days. Its been cold. Tonight another snow storm is possible. Its a bit unusual to go this long with no activity and get this late in March. But the weather is forecast to turn favorable next week. Highs around 40, lows around 25. That’s what we need.
Here is a picture from tapping March 5, 2005. It was warm that day and we did not need gloves or heavy coats.
We had 2 – 3 inches of snow over night. No sap.
The cold weather gave us time to get the proper fittings for the new collecting tank. Its all together now and waiting for the sap to flow. Some other farmers in the area also make maple syrup. They have not yet tapped. Maybe we were early? But last year we tapped on March 10 and missed the first sap run. We will know in a few weeks.
Nothing much happening. Its sunny, but cold. It could be a few days before the weather breaks. The sun is getting more powerful. You can feel the warmth of the sun’s rays when inside a closed in area. Its possible the sap would even be flowing some inside the tree. But once it hits the open air where the temperature is below 32, it freezes and no sap flows.
Tuesday remained cold and windy, but that was forecast. Since there was nothing pressing in the woods we went looking for a new collecting tank. Our metal 200 gallon collecting tank is at least 50 years old. Its hard to maintain. So we went to Fleet Farm to look for new tanks. We wanted a polyethylene (plastic) tank because its translucent (see through) so we can see how much sap is in the tank. With the metal tank we always had to guess. We looked at several styles but settled on 200 gallon tank. It has marks on the side indicating gallons so we can tell how much sap is collected. It also has bottom drain so we can completely empty it. We have to rig up the pipes yet for draining it. We had a false start on the piping because we didn’t measure the fitting sizes correctly.