I'm glad it's just an overgrouwn hobby for me because Maple Season can be an emotional roller coaster. For the big producers, a two degree difference in one day or night can mean thousands of dollars of syrup. For me, just a few hundred dollars.
It warmed up to 57 on March 10, so I scrambled to get tapped in a 3 day marathon. Then a few meager sap runs, and it froze up solid for 10 days with little or no sap. Just 5 days ago, I was at about 30 % of a full maple crop and the weather forecast was dismal for sugaring (NO freezes for 10 days). After waiting for 10 days of too Cold, now they predicted 10 days of too warm. Ugh!
Four days ago, everybody's trees in northern New England began to run full bore. On Saturday, I got 400 gallons of sap when I expected only 50 gallons because there had been No freeze for the past two nights (A hard freeze is usually needed to "recharge" the trees).
Well I'm sitting at 74 gallons now(70% crop) with hard freeze last night and high of 41 and a repeat for two more days! I'm thinking it could be the mother of all runs, (but I've been wrong before). Guess maybe I picked the wrong year to not fill the woodshed.
Perry:
It is always a guessing game. Even the Proctor Lab guys at UVM can't predict only report what is going on.
I don't know if years ago the weather was more stable or not but farmers use to really depend on the sugar run for a chunk of their income. You should read "A New England Year", about a year (1938) on a farm in Townshend VT. It talks about how important the maple sugar season was for their cash flow. They would drive their syrup to Weathersfield CT to sell it, no highways back then, just to get the best price. Maybe it's a good thing it's a side busines for you, I am starting to think surveying is a side business.
Tom Wilson
Hey Perry - I use a good bit of Grade B. Do you have any of that to part with?
If you do, send me an email with the details. Thanks - Frank
Frank
We should make some grade b here in the next week of so. I sent you an email.
