This season has been one of contradictory events. We have had extended periods of warmth without freezing nights but we’ve had some of the deepest frost levels we’ve ever had in the woods. The moisture we’ve received has not been able to soak in due to this frost. Our sap flows have been no better than modest at best. A surprise has been the sugar content of the sap has been 3% which is much greater than our typical 1.8 to 2.2% sugar content. 
 The syrup grade has been all Amber Rich or Dark Robust. A bit of a surprise yesterday was getting our lightest syrup( still Amber Rich) of the season. Typically the syrup gets darker as the weather gets warmer and the season progresses. This lighter batch may signal the season is coming to a close. We have gotten to a period of cold nights for this week so it will declare itself soon. We often note end of season signs of dropping sugar content of sap, slight discoloration of sap( cloudy or milky). Other signs can be difficulties controlling foaming of the sap in the evaporator or even ropy consistency of the boiling syrup. These signs are in addition to the obvious budding of the maples which causes a chemical change in the sap and makes off flavor or “ buddy “ syrup. Stay tuned…..

We had our second opportunity to boil sap on the 11th. The warm days are excellent, however the mild nights in the low 30s is not cold enough to recharge the trees. There is still a few feet of frost in the ground which delays some of the better flow rates. Our sap is measuring 3% which is higher than our typical 2%. This good fortune means it only takes 29 gal of sap to make a gal of syrup instead of the typical 40. Quite a savings of time and energy!!

Our 23 gal made on the 11th was Dark Robust which is very rich and flavorful. We have now seen the sap glows reduce to a trickle! 

The official start of the Maple season at Somerskogen was March 1 with our first measurable sap flow. Our fall preparations went quite well during very pleasant weather conditions. We had quite a few large branches and trees that came down during summer storms that required more line repairs than usual. After that was completed we switched to new spiles on all the drop lines. We waited for pleasant weather in February to place 1050 taps in their new location on the tree. We always look for fresh wood at least 4” to the side and 2” above or below last years hole. The previous tap site  tends to be healed over but there is non conductive wood above and below this previous site so it needs to be avoided as it no longer transports sap.

Our son Peter, and grandchildren Greta and Jack came up for the weekend  to assist with finding leaks and line repair as well as set up the RO , test and put our pumps and evaporator through a test run. All equipment is working as hoped, and we collected our first 400 gallons of sap on March2. It will be stored in a large refrigerated tank until we get a total of 1000 gallons at which point we’ll have our first boil of the season. Should just be a couple days. Check back!

Our vacuum pump is operational but the vacuum not yet high enough until we find further leaks in the system. We have found quite a few chew marks from squirrels which can dramatically reduce the vacuum.