The Maple Letters, 2025

[Andy VT]

I thought it would be fun to post my letters to my neighbors, many of who's trees I tap in our residential neighborhood consisting of properties ranging from about a fifth of an acre up to half an acre. Quite a few nice big sugar maples, and not a few norways also. Some reds. Nearly all new plantings are a silver/red hybrid, none of which are big enough yet.

Today's letter:
Hi neighbors! We are Pleasant Street Sugarworks and we're gearing up for another season of maple syrup making and email writing!
If you haven't met us, we're these crazy people (https://www.essexreporter.com/news/essex-junction-family-produces-maple-syrup-from-trees-throughout-their-neighborhood/article_d6d4614c-b86d-11ed-b5de-e3bcc7baa96d.html).

We thought it would be fun to include the neighborhood list this time, because why should our tree owners be the only ones tortured with these updates?
Plus we'd love to see the neighborhood email list get back to its glory days!

It is hard to believe, but the sugaring season, with its reminders of resurrection and spring, is nearly here and it is now time to prepare!
It is so much fun to deliver this news after a big, cold, windy storm!
We'll tap March 1st at the earliest and March 10th at the latest, depending on the forecast and rearcast when that time comes.

<brevity>
To our beloved maple tree owners from last year, I kick off this season with a haiku to force succinctness:
The sap will soon flow.
Let me know if you are in
For tapping this year.
</brevity>
(Also J and C, would you be up for the propane tank loan again?)
(Carbon neutral boiling is in the works but we think this will be more of a 2026 thing!)

Also, we are considering a slight expansion this year, so R and M, J on A, and R on W, we've talked about that before; let me know if you'd like us to tap! You get a little bit of syrup as "rent" (officially 4oz per tap, but potential for more in a good season. Usually an 8oz minimum anymore). Anyone else too, but we'll have to see how our numbers and capacity shake out. Any kind of maple tree works.

What is our professional prediction for this sugaring season, you ask?
When we start the season, it will still be winter.
When we're done, it will be spring.
If we didn't make maple syrup, would spring still come?
This we don't know. We won't risk it.

A word about tree sustainability, since this is now our 5th year, and our 4th year with some of your maple trees: The longer we've done this and the more folks we've talked to and the more articles we've read, the more we're convinced that if the tapping guidelines are followed, it is safe to tap indefinitely, and we tap more conservatively than the most conservative guidelines I know of and treat your trees like true treehuggers would. Nevertheless, your tree health must ultimately be up to you. And that brings us to the fine print:

You cannot hold us liable for your tree health.
We cannot hold you liable for our safety in your yard.
Neighborliness is the only insurance available for this sort of thing!

Happy sugar season!
Andy, for the team
Pleasant Street Sugarworks
Vaporizing time and money since 2021

[Andy VT]

Hi all Pleasant Street Sugarworks participants from years prior!
This has been a lovely traditional Vermont winter, perhaps a good omen (did you know omens can be good?) to a lovely traditional maple season.
By April, we'll know for sure!

So far we've heard from:
P and J
S and J
S and C
J and D
J and L

and not yet from:
C and H
N and B
L
M and R
D and R

No pressure for a "yes"! Well, not TOO much pressure. :-D
My best guess at a tapping date right now is March 4, but we'll see as we get closer to March 1!
We've learned better than to tap in February.
Till we learn otherwise.
The more we learn the more we realize we don't know.

Happy almost spring!
Andy

[Andy VT]

Hi neighbors!

Maple season is absolutely here now! All of our tree owners we've ever worked with are back in for this season, plus 3 more. This will bring us to 33 or 34 taps on 21 trees if I'm counting right, versus our previous record of 30. This is roughly one quarter of the neighborhood's potential taps and about 4 times the limits of sanity, so I think we're right in the sweet spot.

We'll tap from Wednesday through Friday as weather allows. Discovering whether we enjoy tapping in the rain could be a factor on overall timing. It could end up being mainly Friday. [Would do it all Tuesday if life allowed]

We could use at least one more BBQ propane tank if anyone could loan us one for the sugaring season. We'll return it to you in early April at least as heavy as we got it. You get syrup for that too!

When J brought over his propane tank, naturally we struck up a conversation and he asked how I got into sugaring. Put succinctly, I worked as a sap gatherer for a large next-door bucket operation when I was around 10 years old or so and got pretty into it but then took a ~3-decade break. In 2020 I became aware of my ownership of a sugar maple tree and in 2021 just had to tap it. It was during this conversation that I suddenly realized that the maple sugaring bug is one that can go into dormancy, but cannot be cured, and can strike at any moment. Watch out.

Here are a handful of the reply's we got from the last update:

Hello! Thanks for the NICE neighborhood post on maple syrup. I have 2 maple trees on my property that have volunteered to be tapped, if you are interested in expanding. Very cool idea and a ton of work! Good for you.

Count us in! Cool project, love that you're doing this, and happy to be a part of it!

Yes, we’re definitely in on this lovely tradition. Thank you, ahead of time, for all of your hard work making this happen.

Yes, by all means, tap on. I have a half-pint jar of yours that I’ll leave on your front porch unless instructed otherwise. Thanks. We love the syrup, and the homegrown aspect makes it special.

Yes, looking forward to Spring and the tapping of our tree. Thanks for all you do for the neighborhood.

Andy, you are welcome to tap our trees again. Here comes Spring.

“If Andy is emailing, can Spring be far behind?” So pleased you have not become sane and abandoned this crazy-but-wonderful endeavor. Of course use our trees again, and small print noted. When you are over this way, I have a few jars of yours. And don’t let brevity be a hobgoblin! I've heard someone told Shakespeare to get to the point. May you never.

That email was long, rambling, and non-sensical! --My loving, honest wife

Andy, for the team
Pleasant Street Sugarworks

[Andy VT]

Hi neighbors!
Today is definitely the day! Maybe! For sure! Possibly! We're going to aim to start tapping the sugar maples during the warmest part of today. I'm starting to think Sunday would be the absolute perfect day but today is when we have a time slot to get started, and you know what they say! The best time to do something is when you're able to do it! (Do they say that?)

One of our rules at Pleasant Street Sugarworks is there must be some kind of science aspect. One of the goals is more experimentation around the lesser-producing but high population of Norway maples. Our friend M on the other end of the street has gotten excellent production out of her norway maple out front and we've observed two things: She has always tapped later than us, and has always had more ventilation at the bucket than us. We're going to try both this year. So the norways might wait until Sunday or even later. (Our hypothesis is that Norway maples kick into healing-mode faster than sugar maples, and any backlog of sap in the tap and its resident bacteria kick this in even faster, and thus, we've been drying up). If it works, the sugar maples would probably produce more in future years with the same adjustment. They'll be getting some extra ventilation this year as well.

One thing we can say with certainty: We're going to get a lot of sap this year, or a little, or somewhere in between!

[Andy VT]

The number of taps we got done Friday: 0
Amount of prep work we got done Friday: 1000
The number of taps we will do this afternoon: As many as we can! Starting with the sugar maples and then go from there.
We don't expect much sap today, but this week has potential for a lot.

Sugarmakers with far more experience than us are freaking out about the late start. Last year they freaked out about the early start. Here at Pleasant Street Sugarworks we try to be more steady than that. Drill first, then freak out about not having our evaporator set up yet.

[Vtmbz]

Two bits of old timers lore I picked up this week: 1. You will,have a big run for every cold snap you had in the previous winter. 2. Weather reports are only good out four days, after that they become less reliable.

From personal experience: I’ve always found my self making syrup on Easter Sunday, over many years. Easter is late this year, so we will see if it holds true. Exceptions abound of course. But I think syrup making is more on the lunar calendar than the solar one.

[Andy VT]

Those are fun anecdotes! I hope (1) is true and I know (2) is true for sure!
(2) is why I now refuse to chase the weather to choose tapping day... except maybe to push it out (though maybe I would chase the weather more if I had vacuum).
I'm a church organist, and have also been in the business of tuning/repairing pipe organs and I can tell you whoever decided to put Holy Week in the early spring was definitely not a maple sugar maker!
I've never heard of the idea of the lunar calendar but it could potentially explain a few things, I'm going to watch for that now that the idea is planted in my head!