Spring Harvest 2012

[Amber Gold]

First post of the season and almost ready. Spent Saturday getting the SH picked up (kind of), tanks cleaned, figured out the RO plumbing (re-working it), and made some improvements to the RO room. Today was spent installing 500 taps (long day) and getting some cleanup work done. Tomorrow night, I'll finish getting the RO plumbed. Tuesday or Wednesday will taking the day off to get the rest of the trees tapped, add in the 20+ new ones I found today, and get the vac. running and woods tight. Should be flushing the membranes then as well and the forecast is looking favorable for some runs later this week. It's looking like I'll get 640-650 out of these woods this year, and probably another 100 if I had 1000' of mainline...next season. It's looking like we'll be putting buckets out this season...some that I'm hoping to get (need to knock on doors) and some that Dill's already gotten. Let's see some 3-4% sap! So the buckets will be going in this weekend, and getting my neighbor's 60+ gravity taps in...busy weekend if we're making syrup too.

Also, surprisingly, the trees in the sun were dripping a bit while tapping them and it was <20F outside.

[tuckermtn]

good luck Josh- I hope those buckets work out for you- they have been a great part of our operation since the start...

[Hop Kiln Road]

Go Josh! Still pretty cold here but just need to set the new tanks and probably tap Wed/Thurs. Keep us posted. Bruce

[red maples]

Good Luck Josh!!! 500 in one day thats a good day and like you said long day!!! yeah it has been quite I wanna go and check to make sure any PVC didn't break I had a valve crack last year in that end of Feb freeze after I was tapped in. Hopefluuy no problems with that this year.

[Amber Gold]

Spent yesterday morning getting the last of the taps in and the vac running in the afternoon. 593 taps total and pulling 25" by days end. Sap's not running, so I'm sure there's other leaks I can't find. Looks like we may get enough sap to boil the end of the week. Still plenty to do, and I wouldn't object if it waited a couple more days. Putting the membranes in tonight and getting them flushed.

[Dill]

The bucket trees that we looked at last night are ancient monsters. Its not going to take many of them to hit 150 or so. It always surprises me the difference with the non maple trees between Northwood and Lee, I can't get over the shagbark hickorys mixed in with the maples down there.

[red maples]

Nah saps not running here either. just not warm enough to get the ground soft enough for the trees to pull in water.

[Amber Gold]

Got ~75 gal of sap yesterday, but left it in the tank. Still pulling 25-26" and haven't walked the woods yet to look for little leaks. Looking at the forecast and I think the season's going to open with a bang. Warm day, warm night with rain (low pressure), and warm day tomorrow...sounds like perfect sap running weather to me. Got the membranes in last night and flushed, but still need to get the evap. hooked up...couple of hours today should do the trick. Found out last night, I forgot to clean the sap tubes in the flue pan and they're full of crud...will need to clean those up and wash the syrup pan and should be ready to go.

[Maplewalnut]

Josh-Did you drill or cap your membranes?

[Amber Gold]

Yes and found the hole to be a touch bigger than 1/2" and also trimmed off a bit of the nipple so it matched my old 90's...short one is 5/8" long. I ran them last night. Ran well water through them for the initial rinse, and sap through them last night. Once things settled in, I was getting 275-300gph, so compared to 180 from the old NF-90's, pretty happy.

Collected 325 gal of 1.8% last night and ran it through the RO and filled the pans and boiled off ~50 gal of sap. Fortunately everything went off w/out a hitch. Woke up to another ~400 gal in woods tank and sap still coming in. Walked a couple of mainlines this morning and the vac's 26"+, but found four taps I missed and I'm sure there's others. Some trees are still waking up.

[SSFLLC]

Josh miner repairs on the door. I have it so if someone breaks in the get locked in. Have to tuffen it up abit. She should still be locked in. Saps running good here at about 2% maybe a hair over. 27+ on the vac and no leaks in the woods. Did find one at the releaser will fix when we shut her down. Boiling tonite I beleive! Keith

[Amber Gold]

Well, I haven't updated my post in a while, so some catchup to do. We collected 825 gal on Friday, I think 465 on Saturday, and another 500 gal on Sunday. All the syrup's been a medium. Friday night's boil turned into a fiasco...never made candy before in the filter press and had 1/2" of candy in the canner the following morning. After doing that, I can believe it when people used to make sugar right off the evap. Didn't burn anything which was good. I've never had syrup not apron off the scoop and it threw me off. The next night, I got the therm. dialed in and things went smooth. This season, I'll also be running the syrup pan through the press at the end of the night...two benefits, syrup pan stays cleaner longer (and hopefully makes better syrup) and cleans all the syrup out of the press.

Loving the new XLE's. Getting 300gph for the first couple of hours, then it drops to 270gph for the rest of the night....much better than the 180gph I was getting last year. The only issue I'm having this year is the 30 amp breaker keeps tripping and I don't know why. The RO will run for 15 min, shut off, then I'll restart it and it'll be good for another 15 min. Do this for a few times and it'll run fine the rest of the night...odd. Nothing different than last year in the RO or wiring.

[Amber Gold]

Collected 400 gal between Monday and Tuesday. Boiled it off last night and made some more medium. Season total is 32 gal of great tasting syrup...if I do say so myself. With the freeze (I think), the sugar jumped to 2.2%+, so pretty happy with that. Evaporator ran smooth last night once I got it hot....nice gradient across the pan and lots of little draws, which made it hard to get the cast iron press hot. I usually like a big draw to start the night to get everything hot, but didn't get it. At the end of the night, I have 15 gal sitting in the canner...1/2 gal short of filling a drum...PITA having to take the first draw tonight to get enough to fill the drum and reheat it and correct density...oh well. Fortunately, we have two canners this year.

Keith, is the door fixed yet? I like the idea. Michelle must've been something mad when she got locked in.

[red maples]

Where in Kingston??? I know there is a guy in kingston that does 200+ buckets...Do you know the Road name? are they big Yard Trees? I don't know if that guy is tapped in yet and the trees that are in the center of town the ones on the planes I don't know how many sugars there are but I heard the town wouldn't let anyone tap them although it could just be a rumor!

[Amber Gold]

Brad, I sent you a PM.

Processed 800+ gal last night and turned it into 12% concentrate. My wood's is still coming in at 2%, Dill brought over 160 gal of 2%, then his brother Mark shows up w/ 2.6% from buckets...the raw sap is noticeably sweeter and has a different flavor...difference between buckets and tubing?? By the time I got everything prepped, it turned into a 9-9:30 startup, but finished boiling at midnight and cleanup by 1am. Tuesday, I got a beautiful gradient across the syrup pan with a bunch of little draws, last night was the complete opposite...syrup in 2 chambers and getting 5+ gal draws at a time. Came into the sugarhouse yesterday w/ the flue pan drained into the syrup pan, so this may have had something to do w/ trying to get a gradient established. Still making a medium (I think) and flavor's great...Carlisle Award?? One can only hope.

[Amber Gold]

Boiled off 750 gal of conc. last night. Not bad for as cold as it's been. Getting hard to maintain high vac. levels. Not many rat chews to start the season, but starting to have black tape everywhere. Odd thing is there aren't many oaks in this woods, and I don't think I've ever seen a squirrel...plenty of sign though, those little bastards. Somewhere around 4000 gal of sap collected and ~60 gal of syrup produced.

Membranes are slowing down...tested perm. and passing sugar...time to start asking questions.

[red maples]

We all want the Carlisle!!! We can dream I guess!!! My syrup always tastes lighter than what the grade. Its nice to taste again since my cold is gone!!! I have to go back and taste my syrup!!!

[Dill]

Sorry about the late night Josh. But heck considering you didn't get out to the sugarhouse that's not too long considering how much sap you went through.

[red maples]

OH that was 750 conc...oh I though you ment sap geez. thats alot to go through!!!

[Amber Gold]

Misunderstanding...750 gal of sap, which I concentrated.

Alden, so sweat on the late start. Every night I try to make one imrovement to the SH...wiring in a new light, some plumbing, and etc, and w/ the prep. work, it usually means I haven't be firing up until then anyways...only boilng for 2-2.5 hrs, so not a big deal.

[Amber Gold]

Another decent run yesterday...collected 400 gal and bought 200 gal...my sugar's down to 1.9% and didn't go up after the cold snap...bummer. Made another 10 gal last night. Unfortunately, we've been making DA since the weekend. I would've liked to have made a few more drums of MA before the switch. Been having a difficult time maintaining a gradient and consistent draws this year...think this is due to flying solo in the SH this year. Between running the RO, filter press, firing, drawing off and everything else, there's lots of running around.

[sapman28]

Josh,

It looks like we have about the same amount of taps And we also got 475 gals yesterday. 200 buckets and 650 on gravity tubing, but it ran all night between mon and tues. 1 load was 2% even and the other was 1.7%. Made 8 - 9 gals of borderline light to med. I wil call it med because I have an order for 16 gal of it. Our syrup is some of the lightest we have ever made and not showing signs of darkening. I am suprised you and Brad and russ are making darker syrup. I am also having problems with a consistent draw after changing sides last night. Good Luck.

Mike

[Russell Lampron]

I looks like you are getting better runs than I am here. That 7 or 8 degrees makes a big difference. When I am boiling alone I find myself getting into a groove and getting things done without making mistakes. I guess it's easier when I don't have to deal with distractions.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Josh - Only boiled 100 gals with the damper. Pretty difficult to prove anything in this business because of all the variables. But it appears that after closing the damper with the blower going, the front pan boils harder. Will it save wood or improve the syrup to wood ratio.....I do recall Nearing, a raging capitalist despite his profession, writing back in the 1940's of installing dampers on both his natural draft 5X15's (had 2 identical setups but only used one at a time in case of catastrophic fire) claiming they saved wood. No question the stacks are over sized after the units a retrofited with forced draft. And the floats/float boxes also are also not designed to cope with the higher evaporation rate of forced draft; a real challenge to maintain a gradient. Still completely tore between a bigger unit and an RO. Keep up the good work. Bruce

[Cardigan99]

Josh - Only boiled 100 gals with the damper. Pretty difficult to prove anything in this business because of all the variables. But it appears that after closing the damper with the blower going, the front pan boils harder. Will it save wood or improve the syrup to wood ratio.....I do recall Nearing, a raging capitalist despite his profession, writing back in the 1940's of installing dampers on both his natural draft 5X15's (had 2 identical setups but only used one at a time in case of catastrophic fire) claiming they saved wood. No question the stacks are over sized after the units a retrofited with forced draft. And the floats/float boxes also are also not designed to cope with the higher evaporation rate of forced draft; a real challenge to maintain a gradient. Still completely tore between a bigger unit and an RO. Keep up the good work. Bruce

Nearing was a raging capitalist?? What does that make Rand?

[Amber Gold]

Russ: the temp.'s have been working for me, but I hope it doesn't burn me at the end of the season.

Bruce: two years ago, I tried moving the back ramp around, but found if I moved it too far back to restrict flow, it did lower stack temps, but it seemed to move too much of the heat under the syrup pan and the boil in the back of the pan suffered. I think a damper would work better because it's further from the firebox...hopefully leaves the hot spot under the flue pan, and it's adjustable. IMO, if you're looking at a minor expansion, go w/ a larger evap. or a steamaway. If looking at a major expansion, get an RO.

Cardigan, Nearing's book is a good read, but who's Rand?

[Cardigan99]

Josh, Ayn Rand was the ultimate capitalist. Author of The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged etc. I think Bruce was joking re: Nearing.

[Amber Gold]

Figured as much...I didn't get the "raging capitalist" impression in reading his book Wasn't there some talk of him being a communist or something? Big deal back then.

[Cardigan99]

Yeah, I think he was part of some socialist organization.

[Amber Gold]

Collected 525 gal today which is from approximately 100 gal Wed. night, 200 gal yesterday, and another 200 gal today. Pulled the membranes out today to see if I could figure out why they're still passing. Made some modifications to the nipples per Russ's suggestions. Got the sap home only to find the feed pump on the RO won't turn over. I hunt, poke, prod, and can't find anything wrong. Make some phone calls and get some ideas. I poke and some more and still doesn't work. Pull the RO back out to look at the back of the pump and it works. I've determined there must be loose wire in the motor or maybe the motor's on it's way out...maybe why the RO's been tripping the breaker?? So long story short, RO's in position, feed pump is turning over, and all ready to make syrup tomorrow morning...going in late. Thought it'd be better to boil when it's low 20's instead of single digits.

[Amber Gold]

Fired up the RO this morning w/ no issues. Sap was coming in at 1.5C...pretty cold and it ran a touch slow. Got another keg filled this morning and still have almost 7 gal in the canner. Season total is somewhere between 90 and 100 gal...not a bad start to the season. Surprisingly the sap was running today, unfortunately I never made it down to the releaser this morning...didn't think it was going to run....found the moisture trap filled w/ sap and sap in the vac. line. Shut vac. off and drained the line...hopefully I got it all. About 100 gal in the tank when I left at 3:30 and still running a bit.

So, I cam across something interesting today while boiling. Last week, I finally got around to plumbing in the preheater...for the most part it works well and it's nice having hot water in the SH w/out having to go to the kitchen...wife likes it too...but I digress. So the plumbing was completed Friday night. Today, everything's running smooth, but the flue pan float doesn't seem to be running as fast as it should...still keeping up and depths still OK. About 1.5 hrs into the boil, I notice the site glass is getting low, look at the float and nothing's coming in...plenty of sap in the tank...I think the preheater's vapor locked, so I open the bypass line and still nothing. Push the float down and jiggle it, and mes with it some more, and all of a sudden a torrent of sap comes rushing in, fills the pan and all is good....odd. Done boiling and take apart the syrup pan float and out of the valve fall a bunch of seeds....odd. Go to the flue pan float box and there's a handful of seeds in there...figure these got backed up at the float valve, then all of a sudden they broke loose. The only explanation I can come up with is a squirrel dropped a bunch of seeds into the feed tank through the hole in the cover (he's not in there and wouldn't be able to get out if he did)...must've done it between Friday night and this morning. Things got pretty hectic there for a little bit.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Hey Josh, did you notice what type of seed? When acorn breath grabbed me the other week, he was spitting sunflower hulls all over the place. Had pretty good range and accuracy too; probably could have hit one of your vent pipes from the driveway. Around the house, M and I have been relying on the border collie to keep the seeds from blocking the wood furnance chimney. Hope this helps more than the weather. Bruce

[DanC]

Josh-
I like to blame squirrels for all my problems too, but my guess is that mice stored some seeds in your preheater plumbing in the off season. Did you have the pipes sealed or taped to keep them out?

Dan

[Amber Gold]

Bruce, not sure what kind of seeds. Some were round and others were pear shaped. My shephard likes to catch squirrels/chipmunks, but she's slowing down and not as successful as she used to be.

Dan, I hadn't considered that. Pipes were not sealed and there was seeds in the feed tank..maybe they floated up to it??

[Amber Gold]

Sap's running hard. We collected >450 gal yesterday afternoon and had >400 gal in the tank this morning. It got just below freezing last night. Report is the sap's running ~75gph today so we'll have >1000 gal of sap to process today...RO Machine don't fail me now. Had to walk the entire woods. The cold snap loosened up all the spouts. Found one tap completely off. Fortunately, it appears the squirrel's have slowed down a bit.

Finally got a decent gradient established last night for the first half of the boil, but went to hell for the second half. Serious problems with the syrup pan float. No matter how much fine tuning, it was pouring in, so I close the gate valve down, but then I had to monitor liquid level to make sure it didn't run too low...aren't floats supposed to do this for me??

Season totals as of last night are 8gpt of sap collected and 96 gal of syrup produced...not a bad start to the season. All drums are packed at least 2 Br heavy and by my calc's, the kegs are holding at least 16 gal of syrup, so the real total is over 100 gal. Hopefully this warm spell doesn't kill the season.

[Amber Gold]

Help....I'm....drowning...............

[PerryW]

sound like the sap weather finally hit southern NH!!!

Hard to believe it froze last night in the Littleton area (after being so warm), but freeze it did. The sap is just starting now, but supposed to cool down even more.

Going to fire up my 3x10 for the first time this season right now. wish me luck.

[red maples]

Good luck perry !!! hope all goes well...sap hit here hard the few days after all those days of little tiny runs. but for me aleast the forecast looks awful, I hope they are wrong!!! I haven't heard any peepers yet!!!

@Josh

Yes Here too things are about to freeze up!!! I still have about 200+ gallons out there but need to sleep a little...but I will be up bright and early see what I can know out. my little vac pump is awe-some!!! too bad they don't make 'em like that anymore!!!

[Dill]

I agree Brad, you can't beat these old surges. Mine will be off tonight for the first time since wensday morning. It wasn't even warm this afternoon. Not bad considering I think the motor is original as well.

Josh the flow really slowed down this afternoon, I got nothing on the gravity taps and neither did Mark. Guess I could have kept that load here. At the time it just looked like it was going to keep flying in. Did your vac woods drop in sugar content as well? 1.6 is pretty good considering it has froze in 3 days.

[sjdoyon]

Had a good Wed/Thurs/Fri runs. Had over 4,000 gallons come in, unfortunately only a 1% + sugar content. Stopped flowing today but should start back up Sunday with 40s expected.

[Amber Gold]

Perry, how are things running up your way. I hope this warm weather doesn't kill your season before it even starts.

sjdoyon, 1%...ouch. We're still sitting at 1.6%, which is a touch lower than normal for this time in March, but about right for it being the 3rd week of the season. The extended forecast looks horrible and wouldn't expect to be making table grade syrup later this week.

We had good runs Saturday and Sunday. Now the trees have all thawed out, we're pulling >26"...pretty happy. We did get an unexpected freeze last night and have ~500 gal in the woods tank from the overnight run. Today should be a good day, hopefully tonight, but I'm not too confident we'll get anything beyond tomorrow. Hopefully when it does freeze up, the trees come back online.

We're sitting in the 15gpt of sap collected range and my goal is 25gpt...not sure if we'll get there.

The XLE's have been passing sugar all season and thought I had it fixed, but they've gotten worse. Swapped my old one's back in and they're passing sugar (I think, but will confirm tonight), not sure if it's because they're old or if there's something else going on. It really sucks to be passing sugar (wonder how much I would've made otherwise), but with the season almost over (likely), I'll just finish out the season the way it is.

[PerryW]

Gathered up 575 gallons of sap made my first 17 gallons of syrup for the season. I'm hoping there's enough frost in the grond and snow left to make it thru the warm spell.

[NH Maplemaker]

Josh, check the O-Rings in the top of your tower head (Black rubber Top piece). There are 2 in each head.If one has a nick or isn't on the stinger right you will pass sugar!I blow one the other night and that's what happened! Just a thought. JimL.

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Jim and I have checked them and they're OK. I've had issues w/ passing sugar w/ these membranes all season...not sure where the problem lies. I put the old ones in and the perm.'s sitting at 0%, but haven't had a chance to do a boil down test. I did find out yesterday the refractometer was out of wack and I calibrated at the start of the season...reading 0.4% too high. The XLE's are still passing sugar though because the last time I did the perm. boil down test...took 160 oz of water and boiled it down to 6 oz, it tested at 5.5%, tasted real sweet, and the sugars were caramelizing, so no question there.

How are things going your way? I haven't heard from Dave about how his homemade RO is working out. Last I heard he was having a problem building pressure, or something.

We processed 1500 gal of sap yesterday, 1000 of which came from the vac. woods. We had the evap. hopping and made ~30 gal of grade B.

[Amber Gold]

Sap's still running, although much slower. We started the day w/ 300 gal in the woods, but collected 700 gal by the afternoon. We have 200 gal in the tank as of this morning, so we'll have enough to boil from this afternoon's pickup. I haven't checked the sugar in a bit, but it can't be good. The 700 gal yesterday only made 10 gal. Nice to only boil for 1.5hrs though. No freezes in the forecast, but hopefully the cooler night temps will kick the trees back into gear. This season is reminding me of the one we had two years ago and even then we made it to the end of March. I don't know what the buds are doing...I'm afraid to look up.

[NH Maplemaker]

Josh,Thing are slow here also. Have only boiled 4 times,less than12 hours and made about 56 gal! Sad after last year.
Dave's RO is working Great after he got it wire correctly! It came wired for 220 volts and he didn't know it! Now it builds pressure with out a problem. He is going to add a second membrane for next year.
Goood luck and keep pluging a long. Jim L..

[red maples]

Josh have you been getting some light freezes???? my sap pretty much stopped running on Tuesday it was coming in at about <5 gallons an hour and getting slower as the day progressed and it was coming in cloudy white and sugar was down to less than 1%. So that was really not worth it to me. I haven't had a freeze here since I think saturday night!!! I was hoping there might be some light freezes but nothing. and none in the forcast to make it worth while.

[Amber Gold]

Jim, glad to hear he has it figured out and good luck to you to.

Brad, no freezes, but not now the season's established itself, I've been able to run 26.5" (actually getting 27" this morning) so I think this is helping to keep the trees chugging along. Yesterday, we collected 310 gal yesterday of 1.4%. With the RO, it's still worth boiling, but after making 30 gal Monday night, it kind of sucks only putting 4 gal in the canner.

[Dill]

Did you get a freeze last night? Its colder out today and there might be one tonight.

[Amber Gold]

No freeze and not hopeful for one tonight. I'm hoping that by leaving the vac. pump running, it'll keep the bacteria out of the taphole, and by keeping the sap flowing in the lines, it'll keep the sap from fermenting in the lines. The sap's coming in cloudy, but not horrible. I didn't taste last night's run, but the flavor should still be good.

[red maples]

My vac can run and was running 26-27" but the hobby releasers are what they are and won't work very well over 24" the check vavlve won't release and with that much vac pressure. so it kept backing up besides boiling tuesday I boiled off 275 gallons and only got about 2.5 gallons which is alot of wood and alot of time. If I had and RO no problem I probably would have kept on going. but still by tuesday lunch I managed 20 gallons, and with being warm you really just can't hold it for very long because its already starting to ferment in the tubing!!! Anyway!!! Can't controll the weather right...not yet anyway...I just finished out everything and took some nice pics that you might see in the union leader's story for the maple weekend I had a woman contact me so hopefully it will get in there. Good luck finishing the season...Brad

[Amber Gold]

If the releaser maxed me out at 24", I'd buy a new releaser...5% more sap for every 1" above 20". The new releaser would be paid for pretty quick in additional sap.

Surprisingly, we picked up another 320 gal today off the vac. woods. They must start picking up steam around noon time because I'll check the tank at 7am and there isn't much sap collected between then and when my wife stops by at noon, but by late afternoon when it's picked up, we'll get a decent run out of it. SSC is still at 1.4% and the RO's working on bringing it up to 8%+ for me. I'll boil for an hour again tonight and I'll make another 4 gal or so. Based on what I've seen this week, we'll be able to get through this weekend, but I wouldn't expect much longer than that.

[Dill]

My bucket trees started dripping at 1, for the first time in 4 days. You should have called Mark he dumped his buckets today cause the sap was cloudy.

[Amber Gold]

Didn't realize I hadn't updated this in so long. We boiled sap through last Monday, when the trees shut down and started making buddy syrup. This cold snap though has be considering turning the vac. pump back on to see what we get. I still don't have a syrup production total, but I'm pretty sure the vac. woods is >20gpt of sap a 0.3gpt of syrup, so not bad for a crappy year. If we could've gotten another week out of it, probably would've done pretty good.

Maple weekend was pretty good with about the same turnout and total sales as last year, although Saturday didn't seem as busy. We were in two papers and advertised a bit more, so I was expecting to have better sales. Considering the weather, we had a good turnout today. Met some great people with my syrup traveling as far as Japan and we had visitors from as far as Iran...pretty cool. Thanks to all of our "payed" employees this weekend...Dill, Jim Davis from Madbury, and our parents. Our maple weekend has grown far beyond us being able to do it ourselves. My mom was a great upseller and I'd tell her we need to start moving this product, and before I know it, it's leaving the shelves....think she needs a raise. Since Jim does the program with the Madbury elementary school, he's great with the kids, although I think Dill's going to try and steal him for next year.

[red maples]

Awe-some .....its alot of work but it is really rewarding isn't it... It was nice to be next to you in the newspaper. I thought saturday was a little slower as well but my sales far exceded last year. Although I had alot more to offer. I really thought todaywas going to be a bust with the weather but it turned out to be really good. the rain held off just long enough to get people out.

[Dill]

We all have to keep in mind that Josh has a secret weapon. We can't all be across the street from a fire dept pancake breakfast that also happens to serve 6 gallons of our product as part of their breakfast.

[red maples]

Yes I do know that...Funny thing is that our fire station (although not across the street) had a pancake breakfast at the school.(also not across the Street) but they had there's on sunday. I would have been more than happy to donate syrup and promote it in combination with maple weekend I will have to steal that Idea from Josh and talk to there secretary that organizes it!!! We are a small town (as most of are) and I am friends with most of them anyway!!!

Those that were visiting multiple sugarhouses I did try to send them your way!!! although I did make sure they bought syrup from me first!!! :) just kidding!!!

[Amber Gold]

Thanks Brad. It was pretty cool and met some nice people. Also was able to move some product which is good.

Dill, I think my real secret weapon is Linda, she's a great saleswomen.

Brad, or Dill, you may not have a fire house next door (although your's is pretty close Dill) you can find something else to draw in a crowd...have to work with what you got.

[red maples]

Mine is all about location...I had a ton of people up from MASS. they stopped at mine because I was the closest. thats what they said anyway.