Tapping. Then right away, scrubbing tanks, setting up the pans, shoveling, prepping the RO and the vacuum pump. I could go on. But right away, a run. Then right away, boiling. Then a few cold days to say, ahhh, we’ve survived the first run. Now a forecast for a repeat of the first run, only… Read More
It’s 2020: The Same Only Different
Same late February light, Same rattling of beech sapling leaves, Same maple trees, Same snowshoe route up the hill, Same brook to cross, Same tapping ritual, And the backpack with all the tools weighs the same. Late February light differs hour to hour, A new troop of beech leaves rattles this… Read More
A Short Walk in the Old Bush
Dear Reader, Since I don’t climb the hill to tap or check for squirrel chew I am free to follow impulses. On a recent cold day I snowshoed in the Old Bush, visiting my favorite places. The Old Bush is the terrain directly uphill from the sugarhouse; it’s the original 40 acres. At once I… Read More
Eye Gap and Crucial
WEATHER: It snowed for a week and then the sun came out. The sky today was blue as can be. Even the snow was blue down deep in the holes made by my ski poles. HOW’S IT RUNNING? The trees are buttoned up and have been since March 6th, except for one mild afternoon… Read More
Let The Games Begin
Dear Reader, Out the window on this Monday morning after the final day of the 2018 Olympics, a squirrel sprints across the snow. Old Blue, the 1964 International truck that is not blue but green, rests angled beside the stack of pine chunks harvested from the road the day after the Halloween Wind Storm. Winter… Read More
March, Final Round
EXPECT NOTHING. Unfortunately we can’t resist viewing the NOAA and Weather Underground sites to check the forecast. The Wunderground site displays a graph that illustrates the fluctuations in air temp hour by hour. We get our hopes up for a sap run when we see it freezing by 9pm and climbing to 40F. by 1pm… Read More
Sunday Buds
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
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
Blizzard Soup
O happy day, Vermont is in the midst of a blizzard. Stay home, don’t venture out, the newscasters advise. Sit by the woodstove with a neighbor and sip hot soup, I advise. Serendipitously, Maple Trout Lilli stopped by with carrot soup, cashew cream, and croutons. She writes: If you have ever ventured into the world… Read More
Sap’s Running
Here is the long-awaited official confirmation: Sugar Season 2017 at Nebraska Knoll Sugar Farm, Stowe, Vermont began on Saturday, February 18th. What does this mean, sugar season began? It means the maple sap began to flow from the earth up through the roots into the trunk defying gravity up up up to the lacy twigs… Read More
The Nebraska Knoll Blog 