Maple Open House While people twirled sugar-on-snow onto their wooden sticks bit into dill pickles slipped closer to the bonfire sipped sap coffee while chatting with someone they knew from somewhere else, While children slid down the snowbank again and again scrambled back up on all fours rubbed the smoke out of their eyes clung… Read More
March, Round Two
WEATHER: First it snowed for three days, then the sun came out and drew everyone outdoors for three shimmering days, then the air warmed enough on the first day of spring to wake up the trees, then the clouds moved in along with snow and plummeting temps, and today the sun returned and the… Read More
Sunday Caption Corner
SUNDAY NITE AT THE MOVIES: Sugarmakers made the most of the Big Thaw of February, and this past week COO and the Hutchins brothers (who grew up climbing on our wood pile, next worked crew for many years, and now sugar in Caledonia County) made the most of the Pi Day Snowstorm. Here is Ben… Read More
To Thrive in the Sugarhouse, Remember a Few Tricks
One of our new crew members, Sarah Bailey, is today’s guest blogger. She writes: Thriving (surviving) in the Sugar House When the weather is right the hard work of the day bleeds well into the night. The wood needs stacking, the filter needs changing and has anyone checked the density lately? If the run lasts… Read More
Sunday Caption Corner
SUNDAY NITE AT THE MOVIES: Christian T. (woods crew 2015, 2016) sends along his take on the tapping beat. https://vimeo.com/207681940 SUNDAY CAPTION CORNER/MYSTERY PHOTO: What does this photo bring to mind? Or, what is it? [HINT: This photo was taken in the sugarhouse.]
March, Round One
WEATHER Saturday 3/11 Walking to the mailbox, my eye sockets ache in the winter wind, the thin snow squeaks underfoot, the woods shrink back from the road. WEATHER Wednesday 3/8 Standing by the sap shed, steam rises from a snowbank, the picnic table lies bare, my boot squishes one inch into the mud, ravens call… Read More
Hill Report: Gold for the Soul
Here is a dispatch from Joe Renish who joined the woods crew this season: Hill Report: Clomp, clomp, swoosh. Clomp, clomp, swoosh. The slog up from the sugarhouse is arduous as the snowfall accumulation this winter has been nothing short of bountiful. A few precise strides give way to a snowshoe-devouring collapse of the… Read More
Sunday Caption Corner
WHAT WE GOT TO TALKING ABOUT IN THE SUGARHOUSE: On Thursday, Becca and I stood on the back side of the pans peering through the steam at the lineup of syrup samples on the light box. We fill one bottle at the end of each boiling day. No two daily bottles are precisely identical. When… Read More
February, Round Two
WEATHER: Last Saturday night, February 26, it finally froze up after a week of continual sap flow. The cold carried on through Sunday night. On Monday the next thaw began and persisted until 7:00am Thursday when the temp plummeted from 32 to 18 in a couple of hours. Today, Friday, and the weekend are predicted… Read More
Sugarmaker Trump
Chief of Operations writes: Sugarmaker Trump?? 2/18/17 I am exiting our sugarbush after a twelve-hour day of tapping. The snow I’m treading on has morphed from pristine powder this morning to mashed potatoes as warmer weather has burst on the scene. Except for the small patch of light from my headlamp, I am enveloped by hushed… Read More
The Nebraska Knoll Blog 