The Letdown Alone in the evaporator room at 5pm – the green hose snaked across the cement floor that cools her feet, a dish rag draped over the counter, the rag laden with six screw-and-nut ensembles resembling barbells, four more nuts in a line, and two rows of four washers each, the woodshed doors both… Read More
Early April Woods Report
Crew member Larry Lackey writes: On the woods crew’s agenda for early April has been to check for and repair leaks in the sap collection lines. This was the third time around for most sections of the bush. The problem is not sap leaking out, but rather air leaking in to the tubes, reducing the vacuum… Read More
The Post-it Wall
WEATHER: “Oh dear, what do I say about the weather?” asks the Blog Editor of Chief of Operations as he fills the wood stove and lights a fire for the evening. “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” he replies. “Isn’t that a Mark Twain saying? Or was there a different… Read More
A Spring Chicken
Yesterday felt like spring. Master Boiler Christian discarded his hat and hoodie and worked in a T-shirt. Flies swirled around the syrup jugs on the picnic table. The entire sugarhouse took on a new smell, and for the first time the grade dropped from Fancy/Golden to Amber the color of the glaze on Maple Trout… Read More
March Snows to a Close
WEATHER: Today read like the final, summarizing paragraph of a March weather essay; the theme was “See how erratic the battle between sun and frost can be.” The day began with a frosty temp of 20 degrees. Morning sun quickly dispelled the chill…then clouds dampened the mood…then it snowed hard and is still snowing…then by… Read More
Twice Roasted Carrots
Regardless the time of day a neighbor or friend walks into the sugarhouse and sets down a loaf of bread, a bag of chips, or a quiche, the crew circles at once to snack and snack again. On Tuesday mid-afternoon the surprise snack was a bowl of multi-colored carrots. EEFFSHH, they were gone. We dine… Read More
The Light Show
QUICK UPDATE: The week ahead looks promising for sap runs. We boiled on Saturday the 18th. Today seems like a classic sugaring day – fair skies, a nippy wind, a temp of 40 mid-day to be followed by a night in the low 20’s – but the sap is only jogging, I won’t venture an… Read More
The More it Snows
The more it snows the higher the reading at the stake on Mt. Mansfield. It’s now at 86″ which is respectable for this date. The snow depth at the stake has been measured since 1954. Its elevation is 3900′. The more it snows the less space there is for Mike to plow the snow off… Read More
Back to Basics — It’s Just Bread… and Butter
It’s a delight to welcome Food Correspondent Maple Trout Lilli back for the 2023 sugar season on this morning when sky and earth merge in the thick white of falling snow – the kind “that stays on my nose and eyelashes” – and it feels just right to stay at home and bake bread, venturing… Read More
On the Cusp of a Sap Run
WEATHER, March 11th: As ever with sugar season the story is the weather. Yesterday sure felt like a sugaring day: it felt like picnic weather in the sun, snowbanks by the road receded before my eyes, and mud squished around my rubber boots on the lower section of Falls Brook Lane. But it just wasn’t… Read More
The Nebraska Knoll Blog 