Budding Started in RI

[Mike N RI]

We put in 55 more taps on 18"-24" Red Maples today in Westerly, RI--only 2 miles from the ocean--barely any snow all winter. We noticed that some Reds are starting to bud. Sap practically squirted out of several trees & some sap had a cloudy appearance. 12 miles north where we have 425 taps we collected 170 gallons tonight. We have bottled 34 gallons of syrup so far this season. Hoping for 2 more weeks & 20-30 more gallons... (been tapped since Jan 27th) Sad to see the end nearing.

[Mike N RI]

We had our biggest week this season with 835 gallons of sap. Season to date we are at 3000 gallons with about 50 gallons of syrup bottled. We were hoping to collect 5000 gals for the season but the trees have other plans...
Many trees have small buds starting and tap holes are starting to dry out. We are on day 45 of our season so I guess the end is near. The weather is near perfect- mid 20's for low and mid 40's for high. We have reamed about 40 trees today...