The unfurling began in earnest three days ago when the sun came out and sweatshirts came off, and wool hats, too. The unfurling, that is, of the baby maple leaves, all brown and red and wrinkly to begin with. As spring green creeps up the hillside, first bedecking the Old Bush and currently coloring in… Read More
Scraping Across Centuries
On this fortieth day of the season of Lent, the most quiet day of the year in the Christian calendar, the day between Good Friday and Easter, I will reprint an entry from the 2010 Sugar Season Blog. The Far Corner of the Sugarhouse: As you enter the sugarhouse – just you – to the… Read More
April 18th: Wrapping Up
A Chronicle of the Last Day of Boiling: I’m sitting on a stool by the back pan feeling cozy on a chilly day. Ross is tending the finish trough, Sam is whistling to a silly song playing on the CD, I fell into the sap today….while scraping wood scraps toward the firebox with a shovel,… Read More
April 13th: All Thaw News
“It’s time to put on your big boy pants and get zesty,” said an Iditarod musher to a flailing musher he overcame on a particularly grueling stretch of trail. ‘Tis. WEATHER: The Turn. The thaw began on Thursday. Thursday night it dropped to 32 at the sugarhouse. Friday it climbed to 45. Friday night stayed… Read More
April 9th Hill Report
Woodsmaster Ross writes: “I hope the snow isn’t too soft out there,” she said. “Nah, should be fine,” I replied. “May not even need the tails on the snowshoes.” WRONG! Ten steps into the woods and I was wishing for those longer snowshoes. Of course, the higher I climbed in the sugarwoods, the worse it… Read More
A Good Sap Run at Last
QUICK UPDATE: We got a good run starting Tuesday afternoon. We boiled yesterday, Wednesday, from 5am to midnight. The RO has been processing sap night and day. This evening we are still boiling leftover sap. Last night it froze and barely cleared 32 all day. Tonight it is freezing much harder; it’s the last freezing… Read More
Pail by Pail, Stoke by Stoke
To catch you up, here are entries from the Sugarhouse Logbook: 3/28 Frozen ’til yesterday afternoon – sunny with good run in late afternoon, solid freeze last night. Thought today would be banner run but rain in the afternoon with south wind slowed it down. High into 40’s. Sap sweetness 2.4%. 3/29 Ran feebly all… Read More
The Art of the Draw
Chief of Operations writes: Our style of maple sap evaporator and our technique of drawing off syrup are rapidly becoming obsolete. Open pans, where you can actually see the myriad of bubbles dancing on the boiling sap, and the practice of manually drawing off the finished syrup, are considered “old school” by professional sugarmakers. Not… Read More
Preparing for Open House
WEATHER: Snow. It’s a white white white white world. HOW’S IT RUNNING: Ever since Wednesday afternoon the sap’s been flowing, but not well. At night it trickles, during the day it sputters (collectively, that is, with sap from all 9,700 taps flowing into one receptacle). SAP SWEETNESS: 2.2%. Good news. BOILING STATUS: Thursday was Day… Read More
Sweetening the Pans
WEATHER: The thaw set in on Thursday, slinking to 40 on Thursday, spiking to 50 midday Friday before settling back into the 40’s. Both days, the forecast predicted temps of ten degrees higher. Little sun, no freezing nights. Saturday morning starts at 35 and might stay there, with snow and/or rain. Tonight we’ll see a… Read More
The Nebraska Knoll Blog 