Willow Creek Sugarhouse 2025

[red maples]

Well tapping is underway, not expecting sap to break loose until probably Tuesday night in Wednesday. Trees very frozen no sap dripping from any trees yesterday. and base of the trees are encased in snow and ice.

A little behind this year even though the season starting at a more normal time of year.

We are currently trying to sell our house and moving to the EVIL empire VERMONT!!! So this will be my last season as a NH maple producer.

Its a long story but we have been here in East kingston, NH for just over 20 years and sugaring since 2008 I think was my first year in the back yard tapping a few trees and was bitten by the maple bug. With my kids both out of High school, one graduating college and getting a job in her chosen field and the other is now at American University in Washington DC(the other evil empire) and doing extremely well in political science basically starting as a sophomore since he had so many AP credits from High school that transfered and currently trying to get his masters in 4 years and plans on going to law school.

My Wife who is a pathologist has been unhappy with her job for the past several years has not had a raise in over 12 years and working more and more and more without compensation and with the huge increase in living costs she finally said enough is enough. There weren't any viable jobs in the area just kind of the same with less pay and more work. So she said of all the surrounding states where would like to go to? I said the only one is VT. So it was a long process but she took a position at CVMC (central Vermont Medical center) and started work their Jan 6th. We have had no luck trying to sell our house and no luck trying to find a house in VT. We are looking to expand the maple and can not find a property and house that both work. Maple trees being the biggest issue and when we did find a really good maple property the house was just awful and it was too much money for the house being in the shape it was in. we came pretty close in cabot but was lacking maple and house was a bit on the expensive side and needed about $150K right off the bat between new furnace and new roof, needed a kitchen and bathroom up grade both were in rough shape. so still looking. hopefully the stars will align sooner or later and we can get settled in and hope get a few trees tapped for the 2026 season.

But for now I am still here in EK and trying to get things together to boil sap which is already a pain because I have some stuff packed so have to dig through to find stuff as we weren't expecting to still be here.

So I hope everyone is doing well and getting everything together hoping this year will bring high sugar and lots of sap once everything gets defrosted!!!

good luck everyone!!!
Here's to the 2025 maple season in NH!!!

[eustis22]

sorry for your difficulties, red....I hope it all works out for you.

[BAP]

Tough having to move anytime of the year, but worse during sugaring. Keep the faith that things will work out and who knows, maybe you will end up in a better situation than you are now.

[red maples]

Thanks all!!! its stressful no doubt but we have been trying to sell since last fall but no bites. Was hoping the interest rates would drop as promised but what ever...

Got all 500ish taps in on my property finished the last 150 yesterday morning. grabbed a little lunch and a little rest started on the leak checks... found a few good ones and a few little ones. went from 17 to 27.75 thats a great number to be at. once I get going I will walk the lines some more to try for a solid 28"

started work on cleaning the sugarhouse have to do a quick rewiring of the blower on the evaporator mouse chewed a wire. yay... **** rodents.


Started collecting sap about 2pm flow was getting stronger and stronger although still a little green but have about 100 gallons in the tank by about 6:45 and it slow to a drip and was about 33/34 degrees. woke up to 29 degrees this morning. Didn't think we would get a freeze last night I would have left the hose cracked a little so it wouldnt freeze. oh well.

Goal today is to get across the street and get that tied in and those 75 taps in and leak checks done. not doing buckets this year. a house I used to tap is on the market so they don't want bags hanging... understandable.

we'll see how much sap we get today flow should be getting better by the end of today. Try push off until tomorrow so we can get some syrup made.

keep at it everyone.

[red maples]

Well wanted to boil today but not quite enough sap at about 325 gallons was hoping for more today but didn't get past 37 degrees here so maybe 35 gallons today. a little freeze last night. by the time I Squeeze the water out of this low sugar sap there aint gonna be much left except to start it up and shut it down waste of wood.

sugar starting to come up was only at .6% on tuesday, today was at 1% guessing there is still a lot of ice in the trees and stumps are still frozen with ice and snow. Need a few more freeze thaw cycles to get the sugar up. but sap is coming crystal clear now. just wish there was more of it. need a lot of syrup by maple weekend but it is what it is.

hoping for a good run tomorrow!!!

[Amber Gold]

Hey Brad, glad to see your still at it. Good luck this season, and hopefully 2025 brings you better luck with the home situation.

[red maples]

thanks josh I hope so too.

Well sap still slow to come in even with good temps. got 175 gallons yesterday best day yet. total of 500 gallons for the week but sugar on average of that 500 was low. less than 1 but new sap coming in is at 1.5 finally. With the good freeze we had this winter I am hoping it goes even higher once the sap really starts flowing. those starches actually had time to convert to sugar. I am hoping the niter is lower too. was bad last year and syrup flavor turned relatively quickly last year as well.

first boil last night and everything went good until the end... foam was very high last night and was going back into the float box and messed things up a little had a little trouble with the back pan looked in and could see the tops of the flues... quick opened the front doors turned off the blower and flooded the back pan phew... just made it. brought it up to a boil and was out of sap. never had that happen before. no scorch.

not enough for a drawoff. since the sap was low on sugar. Something up with the high temp switch on the RO too. not shutting off so I don't know whats going on there I rinsed it at the end of december and had no issues. don't know if the thermostat is bad??? shut off is at 110* but caught it at 115 when I went to check on it when doing a soapy wash. try to get that checked out today or tomorrow.

Hope everyone is doing good.

[BAP]

There’s always something the first time you boil for the season. I boiled for the first time yesterday and used way more defoamer than I ever have early season. It was was more like the end of the season as far as foaming up. Ended up with 2.5 gallons of a light DR, I it was dark because of the low sugar causing a longer boil time.

[Hop Kiln Road]

Wow Brad, big midlife move. We did the same thing 25 years ago when the youngest went off to college and it was a little hairy at the time but eventually worked out well.
Sugar here is 1.6 and my buddies in Loudon and Weathersfield Bow report the same. Its bole sap and I guess we'll see what the root sap is after a good freeze.

[red maples]

sap thats coming in today is 1.6.

yes Bruce its very stressful tired of this roller coaster of emotions, stess, anxiety, depressed, excited... I want off.

well last week we thought we found a place was 80 acres solid house from what we could see on the pics forest report says there are about 1500-1800 maples in one section of the woods and there were a few more possibly right around it we were getting very excited then we noticed there was 120 acres on the forest report but there were only 80 acres listed. the people are sub dividing and and want to do maple so they are keeping the section with all the maple trees.... OH man!!! dam... so much for that place. was right where I was looking for in number of taps too. trying to be optimistic but hopefully once things start to defrost up there more stuff will come on the market.


Trees don't wanna give up the sap boiled once and didnt get a draw off. Only got 175 gallons yesterday and today, best 1 day run is 195 gallons on 560ish taps I think I have in this year. but sugar is way higher than last year. started at 1 and went down quickly form there. but last year first run was 800G in 24 hours.

A little concerned about maple weekend though. week and half away I aint got nothing just a little leftover to do some confection and a little off flavor from end of last year for for BBQ sauce. but thats it really.

[red maples]

So last saturday before the freeze up I had 200 gallons of sap not enough to do anything with so I decided to do an experiment because so many are having success with Concentrating then holding it at just below freezing. so I ran it through the RO I usually go to 15/16 and then put it into several buckets and let it freeze up in the sugarhouse, on wednesday I got 250 gallon of sap and ROed added to the concentrate and it was great. When I get things going in VT when ever that might be I think I am gonna invest in a refrigerated tank for just this, then low flows and I can save up concentrate for a few days do bigger boils.

Well finally got some syrup made thursday Trees finally started to let loose. got 325 gallons. so have about 12 gallons made so far. getting there.

came home from work Friday and vac was at 18" couldn't get out right away to get it fixed we had a house showing some folks back for a second look. got out after they left but it was so noisy in the wood walked about 20 feet from a huge branch that snapped and came down on a lateral and it stretched and snapped it was behind a few trees and I didn't see it. walked all over until I finally saw it. got it fixed and back in business. Good freeze again last night should be a good sap day held over 200 gallons from yesterday but would have been more without that branch.

We have another showing this morning at 9 am. then I need to walk the woods again and get the vac up higher. its been running at 25" need it to get back up to at least 27" I think I have a few freeze leaks because it bounces back and forth. down to 25" freezes up and then back up to 27" thaws,....

also need to get more stuff made. Candy is made and coated, cream is made. gotta get some sugar made now that I have syrup again. busy busy busy!!!

[red maples]

So been a little bit since my last post. all the way back on 3/8 for a few reasons

had a few vac leaks. was up to 27.5 at the releaser way back when. that was down to 25 but fluctuating then was down to 24.5. so went out and walked the woods. found 2 hollow trees a cracked tap. a pretty good chew. then went across the street and found 2 more really good squirrel chew. had it running at 27.75-28" at the releaser. outstanding!!!

Had the best maple weekend ever as far as sales were concerned. partially due to folks knowing its my last maple weekend here and people were stocking up. I had soooo many people tell me to please post when I am up and running in VT so they can come visit. I think i will be doing a lot of mail orders when I get re-established up there.

So we got an offer on our house right before maple weekend. 20k under our asking price but we were ok with that. Time for the home inspections etc. etc. a little stressed out I will say that. but things are moving along. have a few things to fix up on the house problem is I can't do it. I ain't a professional so I have to pay some to do a few things but its not bad.

I called the season early last boil was last week. could have kept going but simply just too much stuff to dismantle and take apart. Have to remove all the tubing, etc etc etc. so much to do.

ended up with a little more than half a crop I made 17 gallons of syrup after maple weekend so I have that and have a little promissed to people. boiled out the evap. Got a little emotional for my last boil here. but onto bigger and better things right.

We still haven't found the dream place yet. so we may be using storage and renting for a bit. hopefully something will open up soon with 1500-2000 taps on it.

Went up to VT to see the wife and bring up some stuff to the storage unit this past weekend and went to a couple of sugarhouses.... oooohhhhh to the maple cremes(ice cream) dipped in maple sugar. ooohhhh so good.

I will be checking in again soon hope everyone is still going should be got a few good freezes.

[Keith32]

Hi Brad, you will be missed for sure in the NH maple world. Good luck with you future maple life in VT. Are you going to be selling any of your equipment or other maple stuff?

[BAP]

Good that you were able to go out with a high note by having a great maple weekend. Moving forward to a new venture is hard but in the end you will be happy. Keep us updated on how things are going and what your new place is like when you get settled in.