With the recent warm days and cool nights, the sap started slowly running  on Wednesday, March 3rd. We anticipate having our first boil this coming Wednesday, March 10th and hope it is the first of many boils. This year we added a preheater for the sap to decrease the amount of time needed for boiling in the evaporator. A reverse-osmosis machine for increasing the sugar concentration in the sap will be ordered and installed summer of 2010.

We now have syrup for sale in most sizes, with a large quantity of quarts, the most requested size.

The International Maple Syrup Conference in Bar Harbor, Maine was an enjoyable and educational way to spend four days in October.  Of particular interest to Don and Peter were the technical sessions presented by research divisions at major universities.  The biggest piece of usable research that we learned about was on a new type of spile extension which has a check valve in it.  In short, it increases the sap flow from the tree in two ways.  First, it doesn't allow the tree to pull sap out of the lines and back into the tree at night when negative pressure is created in the tree and the vacuum pump is turned off.  Second, because it prevents sap from being pulled into the tree, it also limits bacterial contamination that limits end of the year sap flow.  By reducing bacteria in the taphole, the tree yields sap for an additional week or two.  Research done by the Proctor Research Center in Vermont suggests that these spile additions could increase overall sap flow by 40% over the course of a season.

 To accomodate the increased sap flow, we are planning on purchasing a Reverse Osmosis machine that uses a high pressure pump to concentrate the sap before it goes into the evaporator.  It works by forcing smaller water molecules through a filter and concentrating the larger sugar molecules.  Doing this can eliminate 75% of the water using electricity, which in turn reduces 75% of the boiling time and wood consumption for fueling the fire.  Research has shown that there is no change in the taste or chemical composition of the final syrup, despite less time spent boiling in the pan.  This is an addition we hope to have by the 2011 season.

We are heading out to Bar Harbor, Maine for the International Maple Syrup Convention. We will hear the latest research and technology in the maple syrup field and determine what can apply to our sugarbush.

We'll be bottling the last weekend of October. Any orders received for which we have limited supply will be shipped the first week of November. We appreciate your understanding and patience in receiving your syrup.

We have been making preparations for next season, even as we continue to bottle on a regular basis to keep up the sweet cravings of our customer base. Our bottling unit has been upgraded  by adding a quick adjusting table.  This allows us to easily and rapidly adjust to different size bottles, as well as fill up to three bottles simultaneously.

In July, we visited a large maple operation in northern Minnesota which incorporates rerverse osmosis, thereby removing much of the water prior to the sap entering the evaporator. This reduces the time, but more importantly reduces the energy consumption to produce syrup. This may be one of our future upgrades.